Category Archives: HASHKAKA PRATIS

HOW HARD IS IT TO DO CHESED?

 

                                         

The Torah encourages a person to perform kind deeds in order to be rewarded. That is so that the reward will publicly demonstrate to one and all that the bounty one reaps from his kindness is as predictable as the harvest the farmer gathers from his planting. The philanthropist should train himself to feel that there is no loss involved in tithing – it is all guaranteed gain. It is not merely permissible to look forward to riches as a result of charity, it is an obligation! (Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer, The Tzedakah Treasury, Mesorah:2000)

 

The crowded bus lurched and swayed through the city streets. David* looked out the window and saw the familiar landmarks of his beloved city passing by, a city of Torah and chessed that he felt privileged to live in. His thoughts turned inward – a place where he did not want to be, because his head was filled with numbers, large numbers – the huge sums he owed to too many gemachim, to friends who now needed the money as badly as he did.

 

His thoughts turned to his wife and young children at home in their small, crowded apartment. He saw his wife cringing each time the phone rang.  She was too embarrassed to answer it any more because she had run out of excuses, and she couldn’t shop in the local stores any longer because the unpaid bills had piled up so high that the storekeepers reluctantly had cut off their credit. Although David had the utmost faith in the Provider of parnassah, he himself was pained and embarrassed that his wife had to endure all this, and he thought sadly that perhaps he just wasn’t meant to continue sitting in kollel and learning. He couldn’t borrow any more money for he would never in a million years be able to pay it back the way things stood. It was likely that his only recourse now was to sell his apartment to pay his debts. With a small sigh, he opened his sefer and lost himself in the holy words.

 

Three months earlier across an ocean:

Moshe Rubin’s* beard was now snow white, though his face still looked youthful and he retained a cheerful, optimistic outlook on life. A phone call had just reminded him of the days when he had struggled to manage on kollel pay, because that’s how he had supported himself and his family during the years he’d sat and learned in Eretz Yisrael.  He remembered the tiny rented apartment, the gemach loans he’d juggled constantly and the way his wife would extend the life of the children’s clothing to last yet another season. How she did it, he still didn’t know. 

 

Wondrously, however, each time there’d been genuine need, Hashem in one way or another provided a shaliach who’d offered support or helped in exactly the right proportion. Moshe remembered, too, the yearning that accompanied his sacrifices throughout all those years to be able, some day, to be on the giving side of chessed.

 

Well, that day arrived when Moshe’s wealthy uncle passed away and Moshe found himself an heir to a substantial sum of money. Moshe set about implementing his longing, and distributed maaser from the inheritance to charitable institutions and worthy causes. He also wanted to do more than that. He wanted to be able to offer a really large loan on favorable terms to a worthy and needy individual, to whom it might make a lifesaving difference.

 

Moshe, of course, had his own large family to consider, and he wondered what he would do if, chas vechallila, the worthy individual would be unable to pay back the loan. After all, he and his married children were still living in rented apartments, he still had children to marry off and he was not getting younger. So, although he could afford to take the risk of making such a loan and supposed that the borrower would have a reliable guarantor, Moshe hesitated. His conscience bothered him, though, because he knew what it means to be on the needy side of the equation, and he finally resolved to offer a long-term loan to the next person he heard about who was in serious debt. At this point he hadn’t yet heard about David.

 

Moshe heard that his rebbi and mentor, Rav Cohen* was in failing health and his family was having a hard time. Medical expenses had exhausted all the family’s personal funds and there were no gemachim left that they hadn’t turned to. The Cohens needed a very large sum of money.  Moshe’s heart went out to his rebbi, but his two yetzers carried on a raging debate within him about making the loan. Should he, shouldn’t he? Could he couldn’t he?

 

Finally, Moshe realized that he had to settle this inner battle one way or the other and, in the face of his fears and trepidations, he strengthened his resolve and made a commitment to loan the money to the Cohen family. He went to his bank and nervously ordered the transfer of the money.

 

The loan, baruch Hashem, accomplished its purpose.  Rav Cohen’s family was able to care for their ailing parent without the specter of debt overwhelming them. As for Moshe, the day after he transferred the money and before he started to worry about the significant hole the loan had made in his bank account, Moshe noticed that his stock-market shares began to increase in value. In just six weeks, Moshe’s holdings increased in an amount equal to the size of the loan! After that, the stocks remained stable without any unusual fluctuation, unlike Moshe’s emunah, which now took a sharp rise, and kept rising.

 

Three months after this inexplicable event, a close relative of David’s told Moshe of David’s plight and asked if Moshe could help out with even a small amount. Moshe asked a few questions and soon understood that David required a bit more than a few hundred dollars to avoid having to sell his home. Again, in a quiet moment, Moshe sat down and battled with himself, wondering whether to give or not to give, whether to worry about getting repaid or left in the lurch. Moshe reminded himself of the chazal that says charitable loans have the most dependable Co-signer in the world, as he had already been privy to see.

 

Moshe made arrangements through the mutual relative, a Rav, to have David sign a loan agreement and turned over the money to the Rav.

 

David got off the bus and plodded slowly homeward. His wife, holding the hand of their youngest child, was half-running toward him breathlessly, trying incoherently to tell him something.

 

“Hurry, David, hurry home. There’s a phone call … Rabbi Levi* … something about a loan, a large loan … your cousin in America … he’s holding on … go answer the phone…”

 

David raced up the stairs and picked up the phone. Rabbi Levi explained briefly that a friend of his had called from the States. His friend was David’s cousin, who had arranged with an unknown donor to loan David a really large sum of money on easy terms and asked when David could come to his house to sign the loan agreement.

 

“I’ll be right over,” he gasped.

 

Once again, Moshe saw the workings of hashgachah clearly. About a week after David signed the loan agreement, Moshe’s brother called him with good news. It seemed there was more to the inheritance they had recently received from their uncle. The accountant and lawyer for the estate had withheld a large amount in reserve to cover taxes and other expenses. When all the outstanding charges were paid, the remainder of the reserve could be paid out to the heirs almost immediately.

 

Moshe’s share (you’ve probably guessed it) was equal to the amount of his loan to David. Hodu laShem ki tov! This really happened.

 

*Names have been changed

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

THE HIDDEN LIGHT – A HIDDEN TZADIK

 

Reb Shaya came to our door one evening and asked if he could tell us a story. He knew that we “collect” incidents that reveal the amazing intricacies of Hashem’s hashgachah pratis and we are especially inspired by examples of outstanding emunah and bitachon.

 

When we heard Reb Shaya’s account of what he lived through and witnessed during the Holocaust, we wanted to ensure that this amazing tale of mesirus nefesh does not suffer the fate of many other stirring stories of incredible heroism in the service of Hashem that no doubt took place in the raging inferno of Europe in World War II but are lost to us.

 

We hope that this story of how one Jew’s extraordinary courage and sacrifice reveal the wondrous workings of the Creator’s awesome master plan will serve to illuminate the path for succeeding generations.

 

At the tender age of fifteen, Reb Shaya was deported to Auschwitz and from there to a work camp in Eastern Germany. He considered himself relatively fortunate because, unlike many others, he found himself in a camp where the guards did not beat the prisoners senseless or awaken them cruelly in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, they were fed little and suffered constant hunger, while enduring long hours of back-breaking labor in bitter cold with a minimum of clothing.

 

Among the many unfortunate souls in that camp, there was one righteous Jew by the name of Chaim. He was an older man, yet he volunteered to work with a group of five strong, young men who were assigned to tote heavy metal rails to build a railroad loading station. Young Shaya also noticed that Chaim never ate his soup, which was the only hot dish given to the prisoners all day.

 

Shaya’s curiosity prompted him to ask Chaim for an explanation. Chaim, who had been the Rav of a shtetl before the war, explained that to save a life, a Jew is permitted to work on Shabbos, and any of the assigned jobs were permitted because their lives were in danger if they refused to do them. However, carrying the heavy rails on Shabbos would only infringe a prohibition of the Rabbanim rather than the stricter prohibition of the Torah. Performing other tasks like cutting or digging on Shabbos, which were less back-breaking, but they would involve the severer prohibition of de’Oraisa.

 

As for the soup, Rav Chaim explained, he gave his daily portion of soup to bribe the camp “barber” to shave him with a hand-operated shaver rather than a straight-edged razor. Indeed Rav Chaim tried to avoid being shaved whenever possible. To avoid calling attention to his unshaven face during the daily roll call, he tried to stand in the middle of the four hundred plus prisoners. 

 

On one occasion this strategy failed and the commandant noticed him for the first time. He called Rav Chaim forward and asked him where he worked.  The commandant, seeing that he was an older man, questioned the overseer why this man was assigned to the hardest work detail. The overseer informed the commandant that Rav Chaim not only volunteered but that he never took a day off, and was also one of the very best workers. The commandant insisted that he be transferred to a less demanding assignment.

Rav Chaim admitted to Reb Shaya that he took no time off because he didn’t want the other five men on his team to bear the extra burden his time off would have entailed.

Moreover, Rav Chaim whispered a nightly Torah lesson in the bunk that he and Shaya shared with six other men.  Those softly spoken words of Torah that Rav Chaim had so lovingly committed to memory in a different time and place provided solace and inspiration through the long dark nights in the camp.  

 

Rav Chaim also carefully and clandestinely and at great risk kept track of the Jewish calendar by marking the days on pieces of paper that came in the bags of cement and were smuggled into the bunkhouse. He informed all the Jewish inmates of the arrival of Rosh Chodesh and the Yomim Tovim. The behavior of this tzaddik not only heartened and strengthened Reb Shaya, but remained with him as a lifelong example.

 

They were separated when most of the prisoners, Rav Chaim included, were taken on a forced march of hundreds of miles to flee the oncoming Russians before liberation. Reb Shaya, too ill to move, remained behind and miraculously survived. Now, more than sixty years later he told us the epilogue to this story.

 

Reb Shaya settled in Brooklyn after the war. One Shabbos more than thirty years later, a new man sat down next to him in shul. After davening, he introduced himself to the visitor, who did not appear to be very observant, and asked his name and from where he came. The man said that he had lived most of his life in Eretz Israel but was born in a shtetl in Europe. Reb Shaya gasped as he recalled that this was the town where Rav Chaim had been the Rav. Reb Shaya began to recount Rav Chaim’s unforgettable acts of tzidkus and mesirus nefesh in the camp during the war.

The visitor listened intently to each word and began to cry. When he regained his composure, he revealed that Rav Chaim was his father and that this was the first news he’d had of him since they were separated during the war. The two men embraced warmly and emotionally.

As a young man with no surviving relatives after the war, Rav Chaim’s son had been sent to an irreligious kibbutz in Eretz Yisrael by an organization that rescued orphaned survivors. A few years later he married a girl from the kibbutz and they had one son.  Twenty-some years later, that son served as a tank commander during the Six Day War. In the first few days of the war, under intense shelling, the young commander lost a number of tanks and men under his command. During a quiet moment in the night, exhaustion overcame him and he slept. While he slept, he dreamed that he saw a pious-looking man who said that he was his grandfather and assured his grandson that he would survive the war if he began keeping Shabbos and the other mitzvos.

Awakened by loud shelling and still under the spell of his dream, he decided to commit himself to learn what it meant to be an observant Jew. By the end of the next day’s intense battle this young man’s tank was the only one of his entire command that was not destroyed.

True to his promise, after the war the young commander left the irreligious kibbutz where he had been raised and went to Yerushalayim to begin learning about Yiddishkeit.

When he started living a life of Torah and observing the commandments, he asked his father and mother if they would also become shomer Shabbos and keep the laws of kashrus. His parents were in a quandary. His mother had learned absolutely nothing about Judaism in her atheistic kibbutz and his father has stopped observing anything long before. They consulted some rabbis in Israel and listened to what they had to say. They happened to have a trip scheduled to the States at that time, and they decided to seek the guidance of one of the renowned Admorim while in America. Their appointment with the Rebbe was scheduled for the next day.

Rav Chaim’s son, with fresh tears, told Reb Shaya that now he knew why he had to come to New York and why he had come to pray in that shul and had sat down next to Reb Shaya. This was clearly the Hand of G-d, pointing him along the way to a renewed commitment to his Jewish heritage.

After this astonishing experiencing, Rav Chaim’s son and daughter-in-law agreed to leave the secular kibbutz and move to a religious community, where they were able to lead a Torah-observant life. Perhaps Rav Chaim’s extraordinary devotion to the sanctity of Shabbos and keeping the mitzvoth was the spark that remained hidden for many years and later ignited the souls of his grandson and his son.

How wondrous are the ways of Hashem!

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

MITZVAH GORRERES MITZVAH – A GOOD DEED DRAWS ANOTHER GOOD DEED

             It was early evening and Rabbi and Mrs. Stein, who lived in New York, were on their way back to Jerusalem, where they were staying, after a nice visit with some of their family in the city named Betar Illit, when Rabbi Stein noticed a lone couple waiting at a bus stop on a cool evening. Since the Stein’s had room in their car, as well as warmth in their hearts, he pulled over and offered to take them to their destination. Upon entering the car, the couple introduced themselves as Rabbi and Mrs. Fried and then expressed their whole hearted thanks, as now they would hopefully be able to catch the last bus going to their home in the Northern (Galil) part of Eretz Israel and pick their children up from the babysitter at the time arranged. Throughout the ride they had a congenial conversation which focused on the Fried’s beautiful (shevah brochas) seven days of wedding celebrations for their oldest daughter which they just finished celebrating in this city of Betar.  As they reached the bus stop just in time, the Steins wished them well, said (mazal tov) congratulations again and Rabbi Stein handed Rabbi Fried two hundred shekels to give as a gift to their newlyweds.

            About five years later, Sarah and a few friends were on a bus making its way over the hills of the beautiful upper Galalee heading for the city of Tzaft for Shabbos. As Sarah, an (adel baalas teshuvah) a sweet sincere spiritual searcher from the States, looked out at the constantly changing breathtaking scenery, she began to reflect on how her spiritual journey likewise had taken many amazing twists and turns from the halls of secular academia to an English speaking (kiruv) Jewish seminary for beginners in the Holy  land. 

           Little did Sarah know how much the double holiness of Shabbos and Tzaft would add another wonderful turn in her spiritual metamorphosis! Without knowing them previously Sarah’s hosts, the Stein family, who had recently moved to Tzaft from New York, were very impressed by her sincerity and good (medos) attributes, took her aside privately and spoke with her a few minutes about a possible (shidduch) wedding match with a fine young man named Yosef who had a similar background and excellent medos that had graced their Shabbos table a few weeks earlier. After Shabbos since Sarah sounded interested in hearing more the Steins gathered information from both Yosef and Sarah – the numbers of friends, relatives and (Rabbanin) Rabbis – so that they could try to put together the shidduch. Within a week the Steins were given a “green light” for Yosef and Sarah to meet at their home. It wasn’t too long, with some minor turns and twists, before the Stein’s were being congratulated for helping this lovely couple to become engaged. Over the few days a number of people asked the Stein’s how they merited to be the (shadchans) match makers for this amazing shidduch of this beautiful couple who each came to (Yiddishkit) Orthodox Judaism with such great (merias nefesh) efforts and sacrifice. The Stein’s themselves didn’t have a clue as to how to answer this question, until the day before the (la-chaim) engage party, when Rabbi Stein received a phone call from a man named Rabbi Fried who was the one who originally arranged for Yosef to be a guest at the Stein’s for a Shabbos a number of weeks earlier.

           After exchanging mazal tovs, Rabbi Fried, who was the one who introduced Rabbi Stein to the then( bacor) bachelor Yosef just a few weeks earlier with the intention of helping him find a shidduch, added the following; “You probably don’t remember when and where we first met, so let me tell you so that you can better understand possibly why it was you merited to be the shadchan for this wonderful shidduk. About five years you not only were kind enough to pick up me and my wife up at a bus stop in Betar but you also added the mitzvah of (hachnasas kallah) helping our daughter – the bride. Therefore perhaps that mitzvah with us and our daughter drew with it this mitzvah of (chason) groom and kallah – as the Chazal teach us:  

Mitzvah gorreres mitzvah!!!  A good deed draws with it another good deed

May we all be (zoche) merited to fulfill many mitzvoth

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

MAKING MONEY WHILE WRITING CHECKS

            Some people think that the blessings attached to giving sedaka are only wishful thinking, but in truth distributing charity is a guaranteed certified “contract” with the “Treasury Administer” of all spiritual as well as material assets. It is stated in the Talmud (Gemora Baba Basra 9b) that if one pursues opportunities to do charity, the Holy One, Blessed be He, provides him with sufficient funds to achieve that lofty goal. Since man was not created for himself but only to help others as much as he is capable, it is stated in the Rambam that G-d provides some men with more than they need to act as His representatives to distribute their surplus funds to the poor. These people are not only administrators of His charity fund but they are His partners in the sustenance of His universe. (Hilchos Matnos Aniyim).

             The Torah encourages a person to perform kind deeds in order to be rewarded. This is in order to demonstrate publicly to one and all that the bounty one reaps from his kindness is as predictable as the harvest the farmer gathers from his planting. The philanthropist should train himself to feel that there is no loss involved in tithing – it is all guaranteed gain. It is not merely permissible to look forward to riches as a result of charity, it is an obligation! (Sefer Tzedakah Treasury by Rabbi Avrohom Chaim Feuer).          

            The following true story about Yosef which gives a glimmer of just how speedily and efficiently the charity (sedaka) equation can work: Yosef has spent much of his life learning and teaching Torah. Throughout the years of raising a large family, he experienced first hand how helpful other people’s act of kindness (chesed) helped him to continue his learning. Yosef always yearned to be on the giving side of chesed and now these last few years after he received a considerably large inheritance, he was finally able to give sedaka in a much more substantial way.

        At first it sounded so easy to just start writing larger checks to those in need and the many wonderful charitable institutions, however Yosef began having second thoughts before writing each check on how much and how often he could afford to give away a portion of his new received resources. He noticed that whenever he would think of an amount that he would like to offer, his mind and emotions would gang up on him with a long list of rational concerns like: Are you sure you can afford so many generous donations after all he had a long list of both foreseen and potentially unexpected needs and wants for his own growing family. In the end Yosef often found himself writing the checks for about half the amount that he would originally think of giving.

                  One day Yosef decided to invest a large sum of money into the stock market. The particular stock which he chose to invest in had depreciated greatly in the last year and Yosef felt that it was now greatly undervalued. With trepidation Yosef bought the huge amount of shares at the end of the trading day. The next morning just after Yosef finished praying (dovening) he noticed a very pious Jew (yid) in the synagogue (schull) who the previous Pesach he had given a sizable check to and therefore Yosef once again decided that since it was less than two weeks before the Jewish Holidays (Yom Tov) and the money would be will spent by such a righteous person he thought of writing this righteous person (tzadik) a very generous size check. In those same moments Yosef saw another (impressive) chashuver yid learning with such a love and earnestness that he once again couldn’t help but feel this fellow Jews sincerity and deep connection with G-d (Hashem) and His Torah and once again thought of writing him a very generous amount, however by now the doubts and compromising starting to descend upon him like a cascading torrential storm, with convincing questions like: Are you sure you can afford it, after all just yesterday you invested so much money and who knows how much it might go down in value?

               This inner conflict of what he could afford lasted for a few minutes until at nine-thirty A.M., at the same time that the stock market begins its new trading day, Yosef  pushed aside his doubts and fears and wrote a very generous check, for the full amount that he had originally thought of, for each of these pious people. After arriving home Yosef decided to check how the large amount of stock that he had purchased the day just before was doing. Well, by now you probably know how the story ended. Yes, the stock had risen so much in that one hour that he had profited many times more than total amount of the large sedaka checks he had just written. Yosef not only helped those righteous yidden with their Pesach needs but he merited a very handsome profit in the process. Now the connection and relationship of the blessings promised for doing sedaka may not always be so obvious, but we can rest assured that our “Financial Manager of the Universe” always fulfills His end of the bargain.               Happy check writing!   

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

FROM A DESTROYER TO THE YESHIVA VIA AN ASHRAM

       

      Avraham, at nineteen years of age, received a draft notice informing him of his candidacy for military service. Since he didn’t relish the idea of becoming a foot soldier in the Vietnamese jungles, Avraham immediately enlisted in the Naval Reserve which obligated him to serve two years of active duty followed by four more years of monthly reserve meetings.         

           After a short basic training, Avraham was flown to his new duty station, the USS Reeves, a guided missile destroyer, stationed in Japan, that housed to four hundred plus sailors. After leaving port, heading towards their duty station off the coast of North Vietnam, the ship was engulfed in a raging typhoon which caused it and its hapless crew to bob up and down like a cork, listing and rocking among the surging thirty foot waves. When the storm reached its peak, the Captain reassured all those on board that the ship was virtually unsinkable because it had a stabilizer mechanism.

        After surviving the storm, Avraham, who was raised as a Reform Jew, would often go to the back deck late in the evening and gaze up into the star-filled sky. He was not only awed by its beauty and the sheer magnitude, but more importantly he began to ask himself many penetrating questions such as: What is the purpose of this awesome creation and what is mankind’s role in relationship to it? Since he had until now never received any meaningful answers to these kinds of questions, he decided to pursue this spiritual quest upon his discharge from the Navy. 

           After Avraham had completed one full year in military service, the USS Reeves returned to the United States. By now the unpopular Vietnam war was challenging  Congress  to find new exit strategies, which included huge cutbacks in military spending.  The Navy, in response offered early military discharges to reservists who had served overseas for at least one year and were now back in the United States. Avraham qualified and within a few days walked down the gangplank for the last time, honorable discharge in hand, happily thinking he was forever free from all Naval obligations and as well as typhoons .

         Shortly thereafter Avraham began to fulfill his promise to search for the true purpose in life by putting his back pack and travelling to the Far East. There he attended classes in health and nutrition given by a gifted, highly well educated teacher who was very familiar with diverse cultures and traditions. Astoundingly, in more than one class he expressed his profound respect and admiration for the Divine wisdom of the Torah and its sages. These words stunned Avraham who was relatively uneducated about his own tradition.

            Alone one day on a mountaintop, Avraham having already realized that the Far Eastern culture was not to be his destiny, he turned humbly to G-d asking for help and direction. Almost instantly Avraham began humming a Jewish melody that he hadn’t thought of for many years, along with contemplating the words of praise he had just heard about his Jewish heritage. With tears in his eyes and a yearning heart, Avraham now understood the need to journey to Eretz Yisrael and eventually into one of its first Baal Teshuvah Yeshivas to learn more about his Jewish roots.

                The Gemora tells us: “All beginnings are difficult” and so it was for Avraham as he “set sail” in the “sea” of Torah he encountered a number of “powerful storms” of doubt and “volatile winds” of indecision that pounded fiercely on his small “craft” which was built out of fragile desires to reach the “shores” of truth. A number of times when his Jewish identity seemed ready to “capsize”, Avraham strengthened his resolve by reminding himself of the Captain’s words that “the ship would always re-stabilize”. Fortunately those “storms” subsided and Avraham merited to marry and begin raising a wonderful family whose “voyage” through life has for the last three and one half decades been exclusively in the “waterways” of the Torah.

            May all our Jewish brethren merit to safely reach their souls true “port” of destination soon in our days.

 

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

THE RIGHT WORDS FOR HIS GRANDMOTHER TO HEAR

           Our teachers (Rabbanim) teach us that the
duration of our lives can be counted in words not just years. When we have used
our quota of words, we leave this world.  Of course, words of Torah and
words used in the performance of mitzvos are not included in this count. It
could well be that for those who have dedicated their lives to some productive
endeavor, it is the completion of their portion of that work that marks the end
point, but only when it is the right time.
Joseph’s grandmother, then in her nineties counted her years in terms of
stitches of embroidery — so many beautiful tableaus, tablecloths, bed linens
and pillows so lovingly and artfully hand-stitched and given to her children,
grandchildren and friends. Now she was so ill that she didn’t even have the
strength to thread a needle or weave it through the delicate material.
           
Her grandson Joseph, who heard that his beloved grandmother had taken a turn
for the worse, found an unexpected opportunity to visit her when a well-known
Rabbi offered him the position of being his assistant (gabbai) during a
short trip he was planning to the West Coast.  Joseph accepted the offer
eagerly, but on condition that he could have a few hours off to visit his
grandmother in Los Angeles.

          
So, on a bright, sunny California
afternoon Joseph set off to see his grandmother.  She still lived in her
own home but was attended by a full-time nurse.  For Joseph, who had been
raised in California
in a Reform environment, this was his first return trip since he had started a
new life as an Orthodox Jew twenty-five years before. His grandmother was
naturally delighted to see him, and he was very grateful to be able to visit
with her as she had been a very special influence in his life. She had, with
great effort, made a special trip to the East Coast to visit Joseph and his
family and see her only great-grandchildren just two years earlier.
Joseph sat with her for a long time and in quiet conversation touched the cords
of the special bond they shared. Toward the end of the visit and with no
prelude, Joseph’s grandmother startled him by asking bluntly, “Why am I still
alive?” Taken aback, Joseph wondered what prompted this question.  
His grandmother, seeing the puzzled look on his face, explained that she had
lived until recently a very self-sufficient life and had taken particular
pleasure in her needlecraft, but now all she could do was lie in bed, feeling
weak and useless.
            Joseph hesitated for
several moments, silently asking Hashem to put the right words in his mouth.“Every moment in a person’s life, even when a person finds himself in
circumstances like yours, there is an opportunity to do a good deed, like for
example, sharing an encouraging word with another, being an empathetic listener
or even just silently offering praise to the Creator for all He has done and
continues to do.”
       
“Our body, you see, is like a garment that the soul “sheds” when it is no
longer needed, but our holy soul, which is really who we are, is never
extinguished.”   His grandmother, who had been brought up as a Reform
Jewess seemed now to begin to understand this rather lofty concept and thanked
him profusely for his words of comfort and consolation. Parting company from
each other was not easy, and they both knew that this would probably be the
last time they would ever see each other.
A few months later, on a leil Shabbos evening, a sweet baby girl was
born to Joseph and his wife. Very late on motza’ei Shabbos, when Shabbos
was over in California,
Joseph called his parents to tell them the wonderful news, and then his
grandmother. A nurse answered the telephone and said that his grandmother was
sleeping and had been only semi-conscious most of the week. He was about to
hang up without leaving a message, but the nurse recognized his voice and
reminded him that they had met when he was in Los Angeles. Something prompted
Joseph to tell her that he was now the proud father of a newborn daughter.
          
Early the next morning, Joseph’s mother called to tell him that his grandmother
had passed away during the night. He was of course greatly saddened by her
passing, but on top of that he was disappointed that he had been unable to give
her one last pleasure — the good news of the birth of another
great-grandchild, and he told his mother so.
         
“Oh, but that’s not so,” his mother said. “Your grandmother
awakened one more time during the night, and even though the nurse believed she
wasn’t fully conscious, she told her your good news. To her astonishment, for
the first time in a week your grandmother fully opened her eyes wide and smiled.
The nurse told me that her eyes were shining and radiated an inner joy for a few
seconds; then she feel asleep and later that night passed away”  Joseph’s
grandmother had tarried just long enough to hear the good news and no doubt
offer a silent prayer of thanks..
 
          
To round out this amazing sequence of events, Joseph’s Shabbos gift was his
seventh child; his grandmother was also born on Shabbos, a seventh child. The
following Monday morning during the reading of the Torah (keriyas HaTorah),
the new born baby was named after Joseph’s grandmother. If it was necessary for
her soul to return to this world, there was already a new “home” in
which to dwell, with fresh opportunities to continue to do good deeds and
praise of the Creator for all that was, is and will be.

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

A GOOD WORD CAN CHANGE ONES DIRECTION IN LIFE

         How often have we spent time and energy trying to help others seemingly without positive results?   When this happens, we find it difficult to understand just how we could have dedicated so much time to such a fruitless task.  If you have ever had this experience or are, even now, ready to give up because you don’t think you are accomplishing anything, read on and perhaps you will change your mind.

             This true story happened in the sixties, when coming of age in this Country took the form of rebellion against the status quo.  For some, this meant trading all of the trappings of materialism– expensive clothes, luxury cars and a college education– for a backpack and a one way ticket to the East where they hoped to find direction in their search for a ‘spiritual’ path.   Many of those young people were unfortunately assimilated Jews who knew little or nothing about Torah and its  answer to these questions, but nonetheless, with Hashem’s kindness some B.H. managed to find their way to the land (Eretz) of Yisrael where they ultimately came to learn about and live a life imbued with the ideals of Torah. This story is about one of these young men who we know and will call Yehuda.


Yehuda was learning in a beginners (Ba’al Teshuva-Yeshiva-Kollel) school. One day, he noticed a new young man arrive that reminded himself how he looked five years earlier, with his long hair, torn jeans and back pack.  Yehuda at the first opportunity introduced himself to this obviously introspective young man, whose name was Joey. Since their personalities were of like nature, Yehuda made extra efforts to help Joey any way he could including learning with him.

               Each time they learned or were together, Yehuda tried to introduce him to (Yiddishkeit) his Jewish roots through its eternal laws and through its beautiful ethical teachings trying to inspire Joey to appreciate his Jewish heritage, but he unfortunately seemed to have more interest about making his way to the Far East and kept plying Yehuda with questions about his own stay there five years earlier.                                    

            One evening, a few weeks later, at about nine o’clock there was a knock at the door of Yehuda’s apartment. It was Joey asking if they could talk privately. After inviting him in and offering some light refreshments, Joey divulged to Yehuda that he had decided to leave the Yeshiva and world of Torah with his eyes directed towards India. Joey was clearly sitting with Yehuda in order to try to pry some names and addresses of people that he had met while he had travelled in that part of the world.


  Yehuda, on the other hand, used the opportunity to launch a ‘last ditch’ effort upon Joey’s decision by trying to inspire him in keeping his connection with our precious Jewish heritage through the path of the Torah. However, about midnight, Yehuda, starting to feel very tired and a little discouraged, felt like ending the conversation as he had obligations the next morning at the Kollel and the two of them seemed to have reached a ‘grid lock’ between their different ideologies.  However, Yehuda rekindled the conversation with some challenging questions about the deeper purpose of life and the role of  the Jewish people. Still after all Yehuda’s efforts, Joey did finally say good night at about two thirty in the morning thanking Yehuda for his time, and explaining that his decision was still firm that he intended to leave the Yeshiva tomorrow and start his journey to the far East stopping only to visit a relative in England for a few days.

               Indeed, the next day, Joey was gone, Yehuda was tired and a little let down from what appeared to have been a fruitless effort.


                It is now six years later: Yehuda and his family were visiting friends in their large Succah in Jerusalem. During the festive meal (seuda) a man of about thirty years of age dressed fully as an Orthodox Jew approached him.  Smiling, the young man asked, “Do you recognize me?” “The voice is familiar,” Yehuda slowly replied, trying to place this person who now had a full beard. Then this young man’s smile became very broad and warm with his dark brown eyes glowing as he began to speak:  “Six years ago I was a new student at  Yeshiva______________.   I was having a hard time and a very special person spent half the night talking to me.”  Now, Yehuda was truly incredulous as he began to remember. The young man continued: “I kept my plans and left the Yeshiva that night, however while on the plane to England, the first leg of my journey, something you said that night started to bother me. I tried to ignore it but could not get it out of my mind. I decided that the only way it would let me be is if I could clarify the issue.  When we landed in England, I decided to look for a Yeshiva and put the question to one of the Rabannim.  As soon as I got my answer, I would be on my way.  I made my way to Yeshiva______ and approached one of the Rabbis. After introducing myself  I asked him the perplexing question that you had asked me about what it truly means to be born Jewish in a world with over six billion people?”

 “The Rav undoubtedly saw where I was heading and how important a question it was to me.  He sat me down and spoke as a loving father would speak to a son. The conversation continued until I felt comfortable explaining my plans. The Rav invited me to stay for Shabbos and somehow I found myself accepting his invitation.  This meant  postponing my flight to India for a few days but the Rav’s warmth and intelligent answers rekindled a new inspiration within me to spend a few more days rethinking my future. By the end of  the holy Shabbos I was recommitted to try again to stay and learn in a Yeshiva. This wonderful Rav offered to arrange for me learning partners (cavursos) throughout the day and I was able B.H. to advance very nicely in my learning and general Yiddishkite. It is now six years later and  I am, B.H., still learning full time but now in the Yeshiva’s  (kollel) school as I merited to marry and have already a few lovely little children.”


With soft tones and a voice that resonated from deep within his heart, Yosef  then told Yehuda, “I want to take this opportunity  to thank you for befriending me and for not giving up on me even when I seemed so hopelessly lost. The question you ask me about my Jewishness, I had already heard from others before but apparently there needed to be another ‘ingredient’ in the ‘recipe’  allowing me to ‘sit up and take notice’  of its importance.  That additional invaluable spice was your misiras nefesh – giving up your time, effort and energy to help reach out to a fellow Yid. Well, Joseph continued: “Through that selfless effort of yours well into the middle of the night, I not only was later able to find out why I am Jewish but was shown by you how a Jew  should act..”

P.S. : Oh yes, that ticket to the Far East was never used.    

 May all the Jewish people merit to find their way back home even if we never know how we have helped them!

 

 

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

THE DIAMOND RING & SHABBOS

                This is an amazing incident that shows us the high level of mesrius nefesh an ordinary Jew can attain and how far the ripples of its influence can reach.

               After Reuven, who was learning full time at Yeshiva, became engaged – a chassan, his father one day entrusted him with a large sum of cash in order to purchase a diamond ring for his kallah. Reuven set out on his mission Erev Shabbos in the late morning as he felt that this time would least interfere with his learning seder. Before leaving his father wished him well.

               Even though hub of jewelry stores were usually only half hour bus ride, because of heavy roadwork, the trip took a much longer long. By the time Reuvan arrived at his destination he since the arrival of Shabbos was coming closer he quickly looked at a number of rings but he didn’t feel he had found the one he wanted to purchase. Reuvan strengthened his resolve that everything is from Heaven and ultimately for the good, turned around and began his trip back home. During the subway ride home, Reuvan began to feel a little tired so he closed his eyes, for what he thought would be a few minutes, however when he woke up he realized that he had well passed the stop for his home and now traveling in the wrong direction. With Shabbos soon approaching he quickly got off the train and hailed down a taxi. Unfortunately, the taxi moved like a snail as the traffic was very congested this time due to an accident that still wasn’t cleared. Reuvan realized that at this pace that he wouldn’t get home in time, so he started to review in his mind his halacic obligations in order to any transgression of Shabbos. Being it was the winter time with very short days, candle lighting was quickly approaching. Finally, a let up in the heavy traffic allowed them to move along at a jiffy pace reaching an area not so far from his house just minutes left till Shabbos. Reuvan decided he couldn’t chance staying in the taxi any longer so he immediately paid the driver thanked him and exited.

Now Reuven’s concern was the large sum of money that he had with him. He looked around him and saw that he had exited the taxi right in front of a large store that was open. He went in and looked around. It was full of salespeople and customers, but he saw an office off to the side and through the glass door, he could see an elderly man sitting behind a desk. Reuven knocked and entered. With a quick excuse for interrupting the man at his work, he explained that he was a religious Jew and would have to leave his wallet somewhere because it was just a few minutes until the Jewish Sabbath and he couldn’t carry it with him.

 

The man looked at him strangely but he apparently felt that Reuven was sincere and asked how he could be of service. Reuven said he was carrying a large sum of money and asked the man if he would hold it for him until after Shabbos. The man nodded, accepted Reuven’s wallet and placed it in an envelope. Reuven thanked the gentleman and left immediately.

 

Reuven walked briskly home, relieved that he had not transgressed the Shabbos. After Shabbos second thoughts assailed him and he berated himself for having given that man his money without any witnesses or receipt. Would he now even be able to find the man? Would the man admit to having received the money and most importantly, would he return it? These and other thoughts and suspicions filled his mind. With a deep resolve not to worry, for he felt he had done the right thing, he pushed away these worries and continued his learning.

 

The next day after davening Reuven returned to the store where he had left his wallet. There was the same man sitting behind his desk. He knocked and entered the office.

 

“Do you remember me?” Reuven asked.

“Yes,” the man said noncommittally.  

 

“Can I now have my wallet back?” The elderly man looked Reuven in the eyes for what seemed like forever, stood up in silence and went into a back room. Reuven was tense, but he strengthened himself with the thought that he had managed to not transgress the Shabbos and that was worth more than money. After what seemed an eternity, the man came back with an envelope in his hand, which he turned over to Reuven. In it was Reuven’s wallet – intact.

 

Reuven was relieved, to put it mildly. He was also so overwhelmed by this man’s honesty, that he couldn’t withhold his admiration and praised him profusely. The elderly man then answered in a European Yiddish “Nu, what do expect from a fellow Jew?”

 

Reuven was astonished. He had no idea the man was a Jew. The elderly man, who was the owner of this business, then told Reuven: “After you left my store and all during Shabbos my conscious started hounding me. Through the harshness I experienced during Holocaust I had given up all signs of my Jewish ness, but your mesirus nefesh and dedication to the sanctity of the holy Shabbos now reawakened in me the will to do return to the ways of my tradition – teshuvah.” He then concluded: “ From now on, thanks to you, this store will be closed on Shabbos!”

They spontaneously fell into each other’s arms with tears in their eyes with Reuven now realizing what a great “investment” he had made after all. From that day on, for the first time in decades, this precious Jewish soul would again be “reinvesting” his life in the service of Hashem. Well – it came out that Reuvan did find a diamond after all that day – the diamond within the soul of that Jew.

 

As told to Y.B. & S.E. Falk by Rabbi H. Waxman

Monsey N.Y.

 

 

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

A DRINK OF WATER

Many of the deeds we do seem quite insignificant but prove to have far-reaching implications. The following true story highlights the great value of carefully considering each of our decisions, large and small.

Yosef and Rachel were looking forward to this long-awaited journey to Eretz Yisrael. They left for the airport shortly after sunset. As they drove along, Rachel was chatting excitedly about the trip. She wondered aloud whether she had found the right gifts for their family and friends and then her conversation shifted to her favorite topic – of someday soon meriting to live in Eretz Yisrael. All the while her husband, Yosef, wasn’t paying too much attention because he apparently had something weighty on his mind. He kept glancing toward the darkening sky, looking at his watch and repeatedly opening his ticket folder to check on the time of their flight. Rachel asked him what was on his mind. He was concerned, he said, about whether he would have time to look for a minyan to daven Maariv before the flight.

Upon arriving at the airport, they quickly loaded their weighty bags onto a cart and began the lengthy check-in process. Yosef kept glancing at the large overhead clock as if his concentrated thoughts could make the hands move slowly enough for him to still have sufficient time to find a minyan.

Carry-on bags and tickets in hand, the couple now walked briskly over to the security area, where they were told to place all they were carrying, including coats and shoes, into the ever-cycling gray tubs that would be shuttled through the fluoroscope machine one after another like a flock of sheep forced into a line to enter the narrow gate of the pasture.

Having rescued their possessions, they headed down the long corridor toward the waiting room next to their departure gate. Rachel began to feel faint. Yosef, noticing her discomfort, suggested to her as they passed a water fountain that they stop a moment for her to have a well-deserved drink and sit down on a bench to rest for a few moments. Rachel, who always traveled with clean collapsible plastic cups for health’s sake, filled the two cups with water from the fountain but insisted that move along quickly to the flight gate and only then would she sit and take a drink. Yosef knew they had at least another five minute’s walk ahead of them and suggested again that they sit down to drink and rest a moment. Rachel thanked him for his consideration but urged that they keep moving.

“Let’s just get to the gate as fast as we can – I can rest later,” she assured him.

At the exact moment they arrived at their flight gate, they saw a group of men standing in a corner of the lounge and heard them saying the Vehu rachu… that prayer that precedes Barechu. Yosef was delighted to be able to join in with the minyan and daven Maariv with the tzibbur.

Thanks to Rachel’s insistence on postponing her own comfort so as not to delay an opportunity for her husband to seek a minyan before they boarded the plane, she was able to reap the spiritual benefits of helping him perform a mitzvah.

We of course cannot say which rewards are connected with which mitzvos but it does seem strange that Yosef and Rachel were the only people on that entire jumbo jet who had a vacant seat next to them. Rachel, who usually finds it difficult to sleep, much less relax and rest in an upright position on a plane, and who had refused to stop and rest for even a few seconds on their mad dash to the departure gate, was able to stretch out and sleep comfortably for many hours for the first time on an international flight.

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia

HOW A GOOD WORD CAN CHANGE ONES DIRECTION IN LIFE

                      HOW A GOOD WORD CAN CHANGE ONES DIRECTION IN LIFE                                                                          B.S.D

 

         How often have we spent time and energy trying to help others seemingly without positive results?   When this happens, we find it difficult to understand just how we could have dedicated so much time to such a fruitless task.  If you have ever had this experience or are, even now, ready to give up because you don’t think you are accomplishing anything, read on and perhaps you will change your mind.

             This true story happened in the sixties, when coming of age in this Country took the form of rebellion against the status quo.  For some, this meant trading all of the trappings of materialism– expensive clothes, luxury cars and a college education– for a backpack and a one way ticket to the East where they hoped to find direction in their search for a ‘spiritual’ path.   Many of those young people were unfortunately assimilated Jews who knew little or nothing about Torah and its  answer to these questions, but nonetheless, with Hashem’s kindness some B.H. managed to find their way to Eretz Yisrael where they ultimately came to learn about and live a life imbued with the ideals of Torah. This story is about one of these young men who we know and will call Yehuda.



Yehuda was learning in a Ba’al Teshuva-Yeshiva-Kollel. One day, he noticed a new young man arrive that reminded himself how he looked five years earlier, with his long hair, torn jeans and back pack.  Yehuda at the first opportunity introduced himself to this obviously introspective young man, whose name was Joey. Since their personalities were of like nature, Yehuda made extra efforts to help Joey any way he could including learning with him.

               Each time they learned or were together, Yehuda tried to introduce him to Yiddishkeit through its eternal laws and through its beautiful ethical teachings trying to inspire Joey to appreciate his Jewish heritage, but he unfortunately seemed to have more interest about making his way to India and kept plying Yehuda with questions about his own stay there five years earlier.

 One evening, a few weeks later, at about nine o’clock there was a knock at the door of Yehuda’s apartment. It was Joey asking if they could talk privately. After inviting him in and offering some light refreshments, Joey divulged to Yehuda that he had decided to leave the Yeshiva and world of Torah with his eyes directed towards India. Joey was clearly sitting with Yehuda in order to try to pry some names and addresses of people that he had met while in the Far East.



  Yehuda, on the other hand, used the opportunity to launch a ‘last ditch’ effort upon Joey’s decision by trying to inspire him in keeping his connection with our precious Jewish heritage through the path of the Torah. However, about midnight, Yehuda, starting to feel very tired and a little discouraged, felt like ending the conversation as he had obligations the next morning at the Kollel and the two of them seemed to have reached a ‘grid lock’ between their different ideologies.  However, Yehuda rekindled the conversation with some challenging questions about the deeper purpose of life and the role of  the Jewish people. Still after all Yehuda’s efforts, Joey did finally say good night at about two thirty in the morning thanking Yehuda for his time, and explaining that his decision was still firm that he intended to leave the Yeshiva tomorrow and start his journey to the far East stopping only to visit a relative in England for a few days.

               Indeed, the next day, Joey was gone, Yehuda was tired and a little let down from what appeared to have been a fruitless effort.



                It is now six years later: Yehuda and his family were visiting friends in their large Succah in Jerusalem. During the festive meal (seuda) a man of about thirty years of age dressed fully as an Orthodox Jew approached him.  Smiling, the young man asked, “Do you recognize me?” “The voice is familiar,” Yehuda slowly replied, trying to place this person who now had a full beard. Then this young man’s smile became very broad and warm with his dark brown eyes glowing as he began to speak:  “Six years ago I was a new student at  Yeshiva______________.   I was having a hard time and a very special person spent half the night talking to me.”  Now, Yehuda was truly incredulous as he began to remember. The young man continued: “I kept my plans and left the Yeshiva that night, however while on the plane to England, the first leg of my journey, something you said that night started to bother me. I tried to ignore it but could not get it out of my mind. I decided that the only way it would let me be is if I could clarify the issue.  When we landed in England, I decided to look for a Yeshiva and put the question to one of the Rabannim.  As soon as I got my answer, I would be on my way.  I made my way to Yeshiva______ and approached one of the Rabbis. After introducing myself  I asked him the perplexing question that you had asked me about what it truly means to be born Jewish in a world with over six billion people?”

 “The Rav undoubtedly saw where I was heading and how important a question it was to me.  He sat me down and spoke as a loving father would speak to a son. The conversation continued until I felt comfortable explaining my plans. The Rav invited me to stay for Shabbos and somehow I found myself accepting his invitation.  This meant  postponing my flight to India for a few days but the Rav’s warmth and intelligent answers rekindled a new inspiration within me to spend a few more days rethinking my future. By the end of  the holy Shabbos I was recommitted to try again to stay and learn in a Yeshiva. This wonderful Rav offered to arrange for me cavursos throughout the day and I was able B.H. to advance very nicely in my learning and general Yiddishkite. It is now six years later and  I am, B.H., still learning full time but now in the Yeshiva’s  kollel as I merited to marry and have already a few lovely little children.”



With soft tones and a voice that resonated from deep within his heart, Yosef  then told Yehuda, “I want to take this opportunity  to thank you for befriending me and for not giving up on me even when I seemed so hopelessly lost. The question you ask me about my Jewishness, I had already heard from others before but apparently there needed to be another ‘ingredient’ in the ‘recipe’  allowing me to ‘sit up and take notice’  of its importance.  That additional invaluable spice was your misiras nefesh – giving up your time, effort and energy to help reach out to a fellow Yid. Well, Joseph continued: “Through that selfless effort of yours well into the middle of the night, I not only was later able to find out why I am Jewish but was shown by you how a Jew  should act..”

P.S. : Oh yes, that ticket to India was never used and  fortunately will never be used.     

 May all the Jewish people merit to find their way back home even if we never know how we have helped them!

 

 

All articles appearing on this blog are copyrighted by Rabbi Yehoshua Binyamin Falk. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to share/download/copy this information as long as it is accompanied by the copyright. Separately authored/copyrighted materia