Mournful
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Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
Rav Simcha Zissel Ziv, the Alter of Kelm
“Either one invites and receives guests, or one is reduced to becoming a guest.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Ah….Nachas
So the school year has come to a close for my three kids. All in all, they each had a pretty good year. During the last few weeks of school several things happened that reminded me of how great my kids really are (k’ninah hora).
Our youngest daughter, who will be 4 in the fall, has become the bracha queen. She proudly and clearly makes brachos on her food/drinks.
Our daugher, who is officially a third grader now asked at the end of the school year for pink siddur. Not only does she daven with it every morning before camp, but whenever she hears that someone is sick she recites Tehillim.
Our son, who is now in fifth grade, just finished a great year with his rebbe, who allegedly, was the inspiration for the Journeys song “The Ninth Man“. The last week of school his class has a siyum and his rebbe took time bowling and them to a dining hall managed by one of the caterers in town. His rebbe gives out “zechus tickets” for learning, reciting Mishnayos, showing proper middos, learning over Shabbos, etc to the kids and they collect them for raffle prizes. My son was the second to last person to get picked, with only two prizes left. He told me that he could tell which prize the other boy wanted, so he took it upon himself to chose the prize the other boy didn’t want (it was the game MASTERMIND), so that the last kid would end up with something he liked. I was floored and very proud of him.
If only…
… my kavanah for every bracha was on the level it was when I made a shehakol for my iced coffee at work this morning, after not having coffee yesterday.
Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter
“The test of whether Mussar is being studied properly is whether it evokes a desire to continue learning Mussar.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Exclusive: Producer Charges Anti-Semitism in Iowa Tax-Credit Probe
Please take a minutes and read this article. For something like this to be happening is simply wild.
Film producer Wendy Weiner Runge claims that criminal charges brought against her as part of an investigation into alleged abuses of Iowa’s film-tax-credit program may be motivated in part by anti-Semitism.
Read the rest here…
Exclusive: Producer Charges Anti-Semitism in Iowa Tax-Credit Probe
Skwere Rebbe of Boro Park shlita-Currently accepting appointments in Chicago
I am pleased announce that the Skwere Rebbe of Boro Park, Grand Rebbe Yechiel Michel Twersky shlita, is currently visiting the Chicago community until Thursday morning, June 17th, at the home of Rabbi Chaim Goldzweig, 6308 N Francisco Avenue. Phone number: (773) 764-5322.
Since it as Shabbos Rosh Chodesh last Shabbos, I got a wonderful package sent to me from the Rebbe shlita. It was a beautiful and extremity tasty Challah and an onion kugel and a luchson kugel. It was a great surprise to me an my family and a real chessed. I felt truly honored that the Rebbe shlita remembered me.
To read about the last time the Rebbe shlita, came to Chicago, click here.
Sunday’s Spark of Mussar
Rav Yisrael Salanter
His disciple, Rav Simcha Zissel testified: “Our master, of blessed memory, lit up the eyes of the exile with his investigations and knowledge in the laws of money, theft and damages. In this he was unique in these generations.”
From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik
Parshas Korach: More than a feeling
Rav Mordechai Eliyahu and my brush with greatness
The former Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael (know as the Rishon l’Tzion) Rav Mordechai Eliyahu was niftar on Monday, June 7th (yesterday). I’m not Sephardic, but he was a true Talmud Chacham and an Adom Gadol.I was zoche to have not only met him once, but daven with him (well, in the same shul) and even had a lunch on Sukkos with him. In 1989/90 I spent my first year learning (if you could call it that) in E”Y. A close friend of mine came in for Sukkos and we stayed in his apartment, which was several flights above the Rishon l’Tzion’s in Kiryat Moshe.
My friend, who is Sephardic, and his family were actually very close with Rav Eliyahu and we were invited to come downstairs to his sukkah for lunch (on what was my first day of Yom Tov). Throughout the meal he welcomed guest after guest, it was non-stop. He was friendly and truly “received everyone cheerfully”. For me it was a fairly quite meail, since I wasn’t fluent in Hebrew. Rav Eliyahu’s wife offered me a side-dish, I think it might have been some type of spicy carrots and I thought I would be super-slick and decided that I only wanted “a little”, so I proudly said: Katan, b’vakasha.
She smiled, realizing that I REALLY didn’t know Hebrew and she attempted to explain to me that I should have used the word “ktzat” instead of “katan“. I sort of got the drift of what she was teaching me, but more importantly, I wasn’t embarassed or made to feel like I knew nothing.
After lunch Rav Eliyahu had someone go into his living room and bring out a beautiful book with amazing photos of different shuls in E”Y. The Rishon L’Tzion then had me sit next to him and he spent about 20 minutes going through the book with me and telling me the locations of each shul. I felt so honored that he would invite me into his sukkah, let alone spend his precious time with me. Despite the language barrier between us, the sensitivity and creative way he used to engage me as stayed with me over the years. My oldest child knows this story, not because his abba once had a meal with the “Chief Sephardic Rabbi”, but because it illustrates true Gadlus in how to interact with a person and make them feel special. That, to me, is one of the traits of a true Adom Gadol.
(A summary of this post was originally left as a comment here)
