Monday, December 14, 2020

Why the Evil around us now is not such a bad thing

 A short Chanukah video from Rabbi Mendel Simons  and his wife Rebbetzin Rachey Simons of YJP Los Angeles [Young Jewish Professionals]

 

6 comments:

annie said...

Baruch HaShem...
Beautiful Truth....

Real News said...

The video has people in it who are not dressed modestly

annie said...

WEll... realizing that they aren't all dressed modestly... they have to start somewhere... and this is an excellent beginning... *:-)... Thank God....

Devorah said...

That's correct Annie, they have to start somewhere. Real News is no doubt letting people know in case they will not watch it for that reason, which is fair enough and something I should have thought of, but it's only for a split second and I think it's only one person in the video.... hope no-one was offended by anything, I think it's great to see the young ones brought back to their own religion, and this is what kiruv is all about.

Rafael said...

Nice video and relevant message, however IMO they missed out the main point.

Yes, we're seeing before our eyes the signs of redemption, but... in order to be able to witness the Geula from the right side of the field, there's an essential condition which they didn't mention at all: WE, THE JEWISH PEOPLE, MUST REPENT AND RETURN TO G-D'S WAYS!! (I'm not shouting here, it's just to highlight the importance of the concept).

Lighting Chanukka candles WILL NOT accelerate the redemption - only if we also engage in a massive Teshuvah at personal level and perform a thorough "swamp cleaning" (sorry for the term) of our leaders, the "rabbis" who mislead the public with their rosy tales and phrases such as "think good and it will be good".

Think good, yes! but increase your Torah learning and mitzvot, improve your bad character traits and abandon your addictions to material, increase your Chessed to reach the needy, support the few heroic Kiruv Rabbis who care for the secular Jews and try to influence them to do Teshuva.

Just having good thoughts and staying the same WON'T HELP, and when the redemption arrives, those nice guys and girls who just keep on repeating these mantras will be C"V taken out of the playing field together with the resha'im.

I wonder if the lady who speaks at 2:10 is the Rebbetzin; in practice it doesn't matter, but as a minimum she should be wearing a hair covering and we shouldn't be able to see any exposed body parts.

I'm far from being an example, I'm just a simple guy who started his Teshuvah process some years ago, but one thing I've learnt very well by listening to strong speakers: one should acquire a solid Jewish Hashkafah that will serve as the foundation to build all other subjects on. If the foundations are shaky, the whole building will collapse sooner or later.

A massive dose of Mussar is also essential, right from the beginning of the Teshuvah journey and all the way along the process.

I recommend everyone to listen to lectures from Rabbis that will wake you up and give you a few good punches to your face, such as R. Mizrachi, R. Yaron Reuven, R. Yehoshua Zitron. For those who understand Hebrew, there are dozens of strong speakers - some of my favorites are R. Baruch Gazahay (who has a special skill to address the younger public), and R. Meir Eliyahu & R. Efraim Kachlon (both are young and brilliant scholars who have already written amazing books and already are acknowledged as Gedolim of the generation).

Let's show our secular brothers not only the kind of "light" or "diet" Judaism but also the real, strong one, that's what will bring our nation to Teshuvah B"H.

Unknown said...

Rafael, I think when the Tzemach Tzedek and other Rebbes said think good and it will be good they didn't mean instead of actually doing good. I think the concept applies to everyone, even people who are shomer torah and mitzvos. The idea is that if you are feeling down, positive thinking will actually change the reality for the good.

Gershon