Entries in Tzivos Hashem (196)
March 14, 2017GALUS IS JUST A COSTUME
All my friends are already preparing their costumes for the contest at the school’s Purim party. I am still deciding. To be more precise, I am still looking for what to dress up as. What is the problem, you wonder? Do I lack ideas for costumes?
A HEARTFELT PRAYER
In a little village lived a poor Jewish man who made a living from running a small inn. The patrons of the inn, who were peasants who lived in the area, were also quite poor, and only rarely had money in their pockets. This is why the Jew had a hard time providing his family with food and their other basic needs.
THE REAL TREASURE
One time, a very poor man traveled from his hometown to another town in order to collect donations. The local beggars were nice to him and invited him to join them on their rounds. The poor guest went with his new friends. He collected one coin after another and ate dry slices of bread dipped in water.
A LIFE OF MESIRUS NEFESH
Presented to mark 22 Shvat, when Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka passed away.
THE DOCTOR’S PRESCRIPTION
On the fifteenth of Shevat there is judgment on the trees. This is why it is customary to pray on this day, Rosh HaShana L’Eelanos, for a kosher, beautiful esrog to be used on the next sukkos holiday.
THE REBBE’S CHAIR
Rabbi Rabinowitz, a rabbi in the Bronx, would sit in a corner of his shul and learn. Strangely enough, he did not sit at the head of the table. He sat on the right side. That is where R’ Michel Vishedsky found him. R’ Michel was even more surprised when he wanted to sit in the empty seat at the front of the shul and the rav stopped him, politely but firmly. “Nobody sits there,” he said.
DO NOT FORGET US
The story you are about to read was told by the Chassid, Rabbi Asher Sasonkin z”l, the son of the gaon and Chassid, Rabbi Shemaryahu Nachum Sasonkin zt”l who was the rav of Batum in Georgia and at the end of his life, mashpia in Yerushalayim.
TZ’DAKA HASTENS THE GEULA
We met in shul, as usual, in the afternoon. In the winter, when the sun sets so early, Mincha and Maariv are davened soon after the end of the school day. Right after school, we rush home to put down our briefcases and from there we go to shul for Mincha and Maariv.
THE KEY TO IT ALL
That’s what I wrote on a note that was sent to all the members of the group during the Mishnayos class. The note was written in code, of course, so that not every boy would understand what it said. But I can tell you, only you, what it meant.
A HAPPY SHABBOS
One day, someone who was not a Lubavitcher Chassid walked into 770. He went over to Rabbi Groner, the Rebbe’s secretary, and told him that he was planning a business trip to Europe.
FROM TAV TILL ALEF
The weather matched Simcha’s mood. That morning the weather required gloves, a scarf, boots and a warm coat. The clouds were thick and gray and large drops of rain began to fall on the empty street.
BRINGING BACK A CHASSID
Winds of heresy blew in the street and many young Jews were swept up with the empty communist beliefs. One of these boys was Shlomo. Shlomo, in the not so distant past, had been an outstanding yeshiva bachur in the beis midrash of Rabbi Asher of Stolin. He studied Torah diligently and was a model of a scholarly, G-d fearing bachur.
