Sunday’s Spark of Mussar

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Rav Nosson Zvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka

Two talmidim came from Slobodka to visit him in a German spa.  They arrived on Friday tired from a long hard journey.  That night R’ Nosson Zvi kept the Shabbos meal short, did not permit the singing of zemiros, ate quickly, and then sent the talmidim off to sleep.

From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik

Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh author speaking schedule for Sept 6th-14th

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(as posted bei Dixie Yid)

Rav Itamar Shwartz, the author of the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh seforim will be arriving in the U.S. next week for about one week. He will be speaking in Lakewood, Boro Park, Flatbush, Monsey, and Toronto. The following is the schedule of his public speaking engagements.


Lakewood:
  • Sunday, September 6th – 2:45 PM – Ateres Yesheya, Rav Simcha Bunim Cohen’s Shul – 908 E. County Line Road
  • 6:40 PM: Rav Shmuel Luria’s Kollel: 14 14th St (off Princeton Ave.)
  • Shabbos, Parshas Nitzavim-Vayeleich(Sept. 11-12th) Lakewood Schedule:
  • Friday afternoon Parsha Shiur – 2 PM, September 11th at Rav Strulowitz’s Beis Medresh (Corner Madison Ave. & 8th Street)
  • Shalosh Sheudos at Tiferes Shalom (Rav Berel Leifer’s Shul: Corner Monmmouth Ave. & 4th Street)
  • For information on Slichos and other drashos in Lakewood, please call R’ Avigdor Jerusalem at 732-363-2453

    Monsey: Tuesday night, Sept. 8th 8:30 PM at Yeshivas Ohr Someach, 244 Route 306, Monsey – Call or e-mail R’ Doniel Coren for private appointments before or after the drasha: 914-645-4199 or dcoren@aish.com
    Flatbush: Wednesday night, Sept. 9th – 8:30 PM, at Bnei Binyamin Torah Center, 727 Ave. O (corner E. 8th)
    Toronto:    =”justify”>
    • Sunday September 13th:
    • 5:15-6 PM: At the Chassidishe Kollel (Rabbi Moeller)
    • 7:15-8:30 PM: At the home of Dr. Seidenfeld
    • Monday Morning, September 14th:
    • 9-9:45 AM at the Old Yesodei Hatorah building on Lawrence Avenue
    Boro Park: 7 PM Drasha at the Machzikei Hadas Hall, 4622 14th Ave. (Corner 47th Street)

    In addition to these public drashos, the Rav will be availible for an all day workshop on Labor (Avodah, v’havein) Day, September 7th in preperation for the new year 5770. Spots are still available for that. Please CLICK HEREfor more information and registration.

    The Rav will also be available for private appointments in Woodmere, NY on Labor Day night, this coming Monday, September 7th. For an appointment, or more information about the trip in general, please call Benyomin Wolf at 516-668-6397 or e-mail him here.

    If you have read the seforim, seen the videos, or heard the mp3s, then you know what you’re info…it’s the real deal.

    Oh Nuts! Rosh Hashana gift giveaway to one lucky blog reader

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    The kind people at Oh Nuts! (my favorite place to get candy when I’m in NY) are offering you, my readers, three ways to win a Rosh Hashana Gift Giveaway.

    The first way is to simply go to their Rosh Hashana Gift page  and chose your favorite give and leave a comment on this post.  I will randomly pick a winner on September 10 at 12:30 pm (CST) and Oh Nuts! will send you a FREE gift.  Please keep in mind that I’ll have to contact you via email.

    The second way is to go to the Oh Nuts! Facebook page and write on the wall the name of your favorite Rosh Hashana gift.

    The third option is to do the Twitter thing and follow @ohnuts and you can Tweet “Win a free Rosh Hashanah Gift from http://bit.ly/2OwulF  Follow @OhNuts and RT to enter.”  Tweet this.


    Good luck!! 

    The social stigma of the poverty we don’t like to talk about

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    photo from here
    There’s type of poverty that we don’t hear people talking about too much. I read about it, but rarely do I hear people I know actually discussing it (of course, I’m writing about it and not discussing it also). Baruch Hashem, many opportunies are available in bigger Jewish communites for assistance with food, tution, shul dues, medical care, debt consolidiation, rides, learning, and homework. Financial aid committees are in place in most schools and many g’machs have been created to help with many of our phsyical needs.
    The type of poverty that I’m not sure how we hear about, and one that has touched me from time to time, is being poor in emunah. So poor that there is nothing either your emunah checking account or your emunah saving account. It’s something we don’t really talk with our friends about at the Shabbos park or at a kiddush. Why? Well, I think that there is a social stigma that’s associated with it. To admit to having a lack of faith shows that we are not “100% frum”. I have read on various blogs over the years that people, both those frum from birth and baalei teshiva, tend to feel burned out or lose their emunah to some degree. Again, bringing this up to people is, for some reason, a taboo subject, almost like telling someone, “I almost turned on a closet light on Shabbos because we couldn’t see” or “I was so hungry that I almost bought a packaged salad at the grocery story…without a hechshar”.  We might think about telling others, but we recoil from what their reaction might be and how they would view us. 

    I’ve seen a trend recently in seforim being published that deal with issues of emunah. R Lazer Brody’s The Garden of Emunah happens to be an incredibly popular sefer. The translations of Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh, Building A Sanctuary in the Heart (vol 1 and 2) are amazing and, for me, changed the way I saw many things and my relationship with Hashem. A translation of the Chazon Ish’s Emunah v’Bitachon, Faith and Trust, was recently published as well.

    Many times I’ve seen statements online such as, “Why don’t they have kiruv programs that can inspire those who are frum without feeling?” or “How come there are no programs to help strengthen emunah?”.

    I wish I could announce a brand new program for those who find their “lack of faith disturbing” (to throw in a Star Wars quote). I think it is something that kiruv organizations should look into. If lectures, workshops, or guest speakers are organized and people start attending these events, this stigma and state of emunah-poverty might be helped. This would be an idea solution.

    However, with the economy in the state that it is right now, every organization is just trying to keep their heads above water and to secure more funding for a new program might not be in the cards.

    I offer the following suggestion to anyone reading this:  Make an emunah book club or informal chaburah/vaad. A book club that is based on the many writings about emunah currently available might be just the right fit for many people.

    Note: Also see this post on Rav Schwab on Emunah and Bitachon.

    Sunday’s Spark of Mussar

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    Rav Yisroel Meir Kagen HaCohen, the Chofetz Chaim

    “How delicious this food is!” exclaimed R’ Yisroel Meir again and again as he ate with apparent relish a meal prepared for him by his hostess.

    “Could it be,” wondered those present, “R’ Yisroel Meir is praising something a mundane as food?”
    It turned out that R” Yisroel Meir’s intention was to bring satisfaction to his hostess.  Since a person who prepares something for another rejoices when his efforts are appreciated, R’ Yisroel are appreciated, R’ Yisroel Meir was expressing his appreciation.

    From Sparks of Mussar by R Chaim Ephraim Zaitchik

    Feeling Elul’s pull

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    (Picture found here)

    Am I feeling it?  Sort of.


    For those who attempt to grow closer to Hashem and work on their Avodah these weeks of Elul, before Rosh Hashana have a momentum of their own.

    Part of me doesn’t want to accept the responsiblity that it’s actually Elul.  It’s time to come to terms with all that I haven’t done during the past year, the wasted potential.  Still, part of me loves this time of year.  I remember phone calls and conversations with my mother-in-law a”h during this time of year.  She would always quote the Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the first Lubavitcher Rebbe) and say, “The King is in the field”.

    I often think of the words of the Alter of Slabodka:
    “We come now from the material vacation to the spiritual vacation: From the months of Tammuz and Av in the forests and the fields to the months of Elul and Tishrei in the house of the yeshiva. What distinguishes that vacation from this vacation? We know, of course, that just as that vacation is essential to fortify the body, so too this other one is necessary to heal the soul. Even more so, for all are sick vis a vis Elul…” as written in the diary of R Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan z”tl (available here).


    It’s the realization that I must come to terms with many things and the excitement of rebirth.  While people are planning out their Yom Tov meals, others are already looking out for the simanim, and still others are quietly jotting down their own Chesbon HaNefesh.  I’m somewhere in between “going from day to day” and “getting ready to face the King”.


    It’s that gravitational pull of Elul.  It is inescapable and it calls me.  And like Shabbos, which I can’t imaging how I survived prior to keep it, I can’t image what my year would be like now, without an Elul.