How can it be that no one opens his mouth in protest?! If the Jewish people would ask and plead, bang on the table and demand that Moshiach Tzidkeinu should come immediately, “now!” – Moshiach would be here already, arriving even on Shabbos!
I close my eyes, and begin a meditative exercise in controlled breathing. No big deal. This is all meaningless. As I prepare to continue on my way, I glance down at the information on the infraction notice. My name, address, etc.… The offence: Traveling 86 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone. Place of infraction: Eden, NY. Eden, NY? Speeding through Eden! Now things were really getting interesting…
The recent missile barrage from the Gaza Strip could have been prevented. At the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, it was clear that the cessation of military operations would lead to another wave of terror. It was obvious that it would be much more intense and unyielding, and it happened much sooner than anyone could have imagined.
Heishke celebrated his bar mitzvah in the small village of Dorokhova. This was the first and last simcha with his parents and sisters. * One can practically sense the fluttering of his heart as he says the maamer…
There is a tradition from the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov that the extraordinary length of the present severe galus has already made up for the troubles of that possible future battle and the trauma of the death of Moshiach ben Yosef. Therefore, these will certainly not take place.
We cannot lull ourselves into thinking that the Redemption is far off and that it is an elusive goal. That is tantamount to one who places G-d on a “pedestal” and maintains that He is beyond our reach. We must approach our requests for Moshiach and Redemption as requests for things that are within range, nay, that they are right outside our doorway standing on the threshold.
The two became anxious. What would they do if it turned out that the mother of the newborn infant was in fact a Gentile? With great effort on their part the father was finally beginning to come closer to Yiddishkait. By walking out on him now, they would destroy everything they had worked so hard to build.
In a number of previous installments, we read about Rabbi Hillel Zaltzman’s travels in the Soviet Union for the purpose of communal work. Each one of these trips was an adventure. Aside from the main purpose of the trip, he took the opportunity to meet Chassidim and ordinary Jews in the cities he passed through. In this chapter, he tells about surprising encounters, the discovery of Chassidishe neshamos, and stories that he heard.
Rabbi Udi Studnitz, who is a shliach in the Kiryat HaYovel neighborhood of Yerushalayim, shares outreach stories with us.
When the story was translated for the English section of this magazine, it came to the attention of a wealthy Jew in Florida. He called the Beis Moshiach office in New York and asked for the phone number of the shluchim in South America. He sent them a nice donation that pulled them out of the deep pit of debt - for at least a few weeks.
Immediately following Chof Zayin Adar, the concern and davening of the Chassidim was peppered with a liberal amount of faith, hope and optimism. Many were speculating about whether we would see the Rebbe by Purim; Yud Aleph Nissan was not even a question in anyone’s mind. At that time, one prominent Chassid went around saying: “They’re talking about Purim and Yud Aleph Nissan; we’ll be lucky if the Rebbe comes out for Rosh Hashanah!” * I remember the shock everyone felt at such heresy. Didn’t we all witness the swift and miraculous recovery of the Rebbe in 5738? Surely we shouldn’t expect any less now! We had seen clearly enough that the Rebbe was not confined to the limitations of natural laws.
Charkov, Samarkand, Paris, New York, S. Paulo, Rio de Janeiro – in all of these places, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Chitrik a”h made a Chassidishe environment. * Profile of a Chassid, a distinguished resident of Crown Heights, who recently left us.
March 23, 2012