I was sent an email about a blog that “is dedicated to providing people with Chizuk and information about Tinok ben Aviva, the son of Rabbi Eytan and Rebbetzin Aviva Feiner who merited to give birth to their first child after 12 years of marriage.”
The address is http://tinok-ben-aviva.blogspot.com/
Click here to be directed to a recent speech that Rabbi Eytan Feiner gave.
Rabbi Yisroel Salanter
“It is easier,” said R’ Yisroel, “to know the entire Talmud than to correct a single bad midah.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
One nifty thing about using sitemeter is that I see the city where those looking at my blog are in. I know that I have over 30 readers in the Chicagoland area (I personally only know of about 5 that have come out and said, “I read your blog”), but I know you are out there. If you’re going online already why not check out jChicago.net ?
From their press release:
jChicago.net has officially launched this Chanukah as the first email listserv connecting the entire Chicago Jewish community. The site features an interactive Chicago Jewish community email listserv, as well as user-updated event calendar, business directory, and real estate listing sections. Additionally, jChicago.net created partnerships to provide Illinois specific RSS feeds from OnlySimchas.com, JewishJobs.com, and MyZmanim.com, and Kosher dining discount cards through Restaurant.com.
jChicago.net, which was built by community members for community members, offers its users access to the email announcement listserv in three different ways: receiving each individual message that is posted, receiving a daily digest of all messages posted, or by viewing the messages directly on the site’s homepage. On the jChicago.net homepage, emails are archived in various categories such as advice, events, for sale, job opportunities, general information, business services, and mitzva (charitable) opportunities. Users may subscribe to a daily digest of the listserv by sending a blank email to subscribe@jchicago.net.
Those who read this blog know that I’m all for achdus. I feel that this new website and listserv is another way for those of us in the Great Chicago area, and even those who don’t live here, to connect. It’s another way to post an important message. Imagine how many people you could reach by posting that, for example, Tehillim need to be said for someone that is sick?
Just like Likutei Peshatim and the Achdus Bulletin provide important communication services in our community, I feel that jChicago.net will do the same. Yashar Koach to their creative team and keep up the good work.
The Chofetz Chaim once asked R’ Yisroel’s advice about a well know problem of yeshiva students. When they begin a new tractrate, they are enthusiastic, but when they reach the middle, they lose their patience and their desire to continue learning it to the end.
R’ Yisroel replied, “Let them learn a tractrate as long as they wish. After that, they can turn to a different tractrate, and on another, until they have satisfied their thirst for different tractrates. Then they can return to the first one and eventually complete all the tractrates they have begun.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Yesterday I was in a Walgreens to pick something and partake in my once a month crazy habit.
After not finding what I had hoped to find, I continued down the candy aisle. I started laughing. The aisle stared out with candy, then progressed to energy/sports bars, and finally there was shelving at the end of the aisle filled with weight-loss products. HaHaHaHa!
This is gevaldik product placement! What better way to get someone to buy a pill to curb your appetite, than to stick it right next to all the candy. It worked for me. I started thinking (for a minute) if I really even needed to be looking any candy, at all? I could use a pill to help me loose weight, or even some exercise. I suppose some people might use the same approach in chinuch in schools or at home. The “let me show you how NOT to act and then maybe you’ll decide that you really don’t WANT to go down that path” approach is often applied when people use terms like “at risk” or “the hashkafic GPS is broken” (my term for “off whatever derech”). From what I’ve read (and heard from people) a major factor in this trend is not is seeing a genuine Simchas HaChaim in people who are Torah observant.
As I left the store I started thinking about what “products” I want my children to “purchase” from me, their teachers, friends, and our community. I recall listening to Rav Moshe Weinberger’s Inspired Parenting series, (either tape 5 or 6), and hearing that our kids notice exactly when and what we are excited about. Rav Weinberger gives two examples:
1) A mother who can’t wait to go shopping with her daughter when there’s an amazing sale, yet doesn’t get excited about Yom Tom
2) A father who goes to a ball game with his son and screams and cheers the whole time, yet during davening Shabbos morning, he can barely get enough energy to say the words in the siddur
I am not against shopping or sporting events, believe me. But, the responsibility we have by having little eyes watching us is great. I see it in my own kids, in different ways. My 8 yr old, who attends shul with me on Shabbos morning, amazed me by sitting down when the man who makes Kiddush for the minyan sat down to make Kiddush for everyone. I was amazed because when I asked him about why he sat, my son told me, “because I see you sit.”
My 5 yr old, when playing with her 15 month old sister often will use the same phrases and gestures that my wife uses when interacting with the baby.
And even the baby will give kisses to her doll or try to kiss the mezuzzah, all because that is she sees. Product placement seems to be key when you have consumers living with you.
Interested in getting posting updates sent to your inbox? Please, click here.
As received from the Chicago Center for Torah and Chessed:
Please be mispallel for Tinok ben Aviva. Thank you.
In August, I wrote about the book JEWTHINK by R Avi Shafran.
I tip my black hat to A Simple Jew for schooling me the greatness of tinyurl, which as allowed me to add the text of JEWTHINK to my links list.
While other children in town were learning in cheder, one poor orphan boy went roaming in the streets, for there was no one to pay his tuition. R’ Yisroel insisted that the townspeople pay it. “We have no money,” they argued. “Sell your Sifrei Torah,” thundered R’ Yisroel, “and pay the child’s tuition!”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Interested in getting posting updates sent to your inbox? Please, click here.
(Typical Iced Cappuccino made by me at home)
