David Yosef ben Feige Perel has regained consciousness but needs a long slow recovery.
Computer Model for Moshe crossing the sea of reeds. http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/21/computers-explain-moses-parted-red-sea/
When you read this you don’t have to have direct prophecy to figure out that this is not positive way with HASHEM: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=204957
Hidden Miracles on the outside it might look ordinary but inside it is a hidden miracle: http://www.debka.com/article/9038/
The true agenda of the ultra-Orthodox – an MRI in every hospital: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139764
Parsha Beresheis
This year, I decided to keep my promise. Two years ago, I spoke about creation and evolution from the latest scientific data. Now at long last creation from a rudimentary Kabbalistic concepts and the basic tenets of Jewish Mysticism. I don’t claim to be able to give a more in depth view of Kabbalah than Dr. Philip Berg’s center. With a major exception he uses Kabbalah as hoe to dig up income with and I teach for the sake of heaven. So in all my appeals for my Kollel over the years I have not seen a penny donation so that I stopped asking. I only donate time and money to the Kollel and never take a penny so perhaps HASHEM will allow me to reveal a little to the layman for in the time of the Moshiach the whole world both Jews and Goyim will be transformed from mundane to a higher spiritual plane.
The Kabbalah although attributed to Torah from Mt. Sinai and especially Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai through Rav Chiya (pronounced CHEE YA) has continued throughout the centuries to develop and expand. Rabbi Moshe Leon is credited with reinstating the Zohar into Judaism in Spain which is why there are so many Sephardic and Yemenite Jews that have studied it vs. the practical Yeshiva approach. It is interesting that the biggest defender of Aristotle practicalism is the RAMBAM and yet he wrote in his Halachic Work: Mishna Torah the first 5 chapters devoted to the existence of G-D and mysticism. He did recommend: First learn all the other Halachos and then come back to mysticism. The Vilna Gaon knew Kabbalah very well but was the leader of all the rational and practical Yeshivas in Europe. Even hidden in the most logical book of them all Moreh Nevuchim aka a Guide to the Perplexed his hidden mysticism and hidden DIVINE NAMES so that the Zohar should be a book of light to all Talmidei Chachamim.
The Zohar has many elements between Sinai and Rabbi Chiya. The most disturbing ones to outsides to Judaism who know how to read it and have also studied Zoroastrian Philosophy that certain elements of that religion is in the Zohar. However, Dr. Rabbi Eliyahu Schatz in his book The Proof of the accuracy of the Bible claims that Zoroastrian comes from Mordechai and Esther hence the man’s real name or title under the King and Esther combined. Also as an aside note that Buddhism comes from a wondering Ben Yisrael Scholar meeting Buddha the Prince. The late David Isaac from Burma with a wife from India was convinced that Hinduism comes from the Bnei Ketura or A-Braham and hence the Brahman class who observe Tahara HaMishpacha, special food preparation, etc.
Axioms: There are 4 elements of the ancients or shall I modernize it into forms of matter: Air, Fire, Earth and Water or Gas, Plasma, Solid and Liquid. There are 4 forms of life: Inanimate, Plants, Animals and Talking aka Man. There are four universes or worlds in which mankind will live in: Atsilut, Beriah, Yesod and lastly Asiah. Imagination, Creation, Formation and Action. Asiah is the world where the well-spring of soul from Adam’s soul and where we are today. There are 10 Siferos: Keter or crown, Chakman or wisdom, Bina or understanding, Chessed or mercy, Gevurah or force/severity, Tiferes or beauty, Nesach or victory, Hod or glory, Yesod or foundation and Malchos or kingdom. There is a whole series of opposites like good vs. evil, hot vs. cold, black vs. white, life vs. death, etc. Finally things above the Teva (nature) such as 7 directions we have up, down, north, east, south and west or 7 days in the week and the 8th day the Mishkan was built and is the day of the Bris Milah (circumcision).
The Hebrew letters Agadda story of creation. Much of the Zohar cannot be taken at face value and this story might have had many interpretations. Agadda states that for 2000 years before the thought will creation of the universe, HASHEM played around with how to start HIS Torah and what to write. He started from the highest numerical value downwards. Tav = 400 and each letter talked to G-D with a word or two until he came to Bet where the word Bracha was used. As compensation to Aleph the letter Aleph would represent the oneness of G-D – What I don’t understand from the Zohar’s reply and the story must go back until Sinai or there abouts why not use the ADON type of NAME or the Aleph from I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE? I am sure with this nice story is hidden secrets.
The WORD – I could never figure out the non-Jewish writing of In the beginning there was the WORD. This is a natural outcome of G-D playing with the letters. Now this has nothing to do with Christian Gospels as this was 2,000 years prior to the Big Bang. However, the original followers of Yeshu were Orthodox Jewish Am HaAretz types and knew very little with the exception of a few like Yehuda Ish Karyos who was a learning partner from the area around the Kishon brook between Haifa and Akko. Regarding the Word, actually it was a series of words for creation and the hidden Bible Codes. The book Bible Codes by Michael D. who after believing in the codes (if he really does) tried to predict the future such as an earthquake in LA but failed miserable and continues to be a non-Torah Jew. That is why we don’t try to extrapolate from the Bible the hidden Codes for future events – “Seeing that the Future is hidden until the end of days” – Daniel. So a natural outcome of the choosing of words for the letters was then the choosing of words. As we say in Hebrew סוף מעשה במחשבה תחלה The end deed is the product of the first thought. We know that there is not one extra word in the Torah and no missing words. (Over 33 centuries there have been found in various lands three divergent words from the standard text we have today and most scholars assume that they are copying errors or in one case using a similar word).
Before I get into the whole creation I will give you sort of a Kabbalist Introduction. As you know two years ago in my Beresheis blogspot on science I wrote:
14 And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.' And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
The forming of the son and the earth or earth/moon being captured and placed in the solar system with a proper amount of radiation and distance to sustain life as we know it. It is obvious to us that on Mercury and Venus, life as we know it on Earth could not exist because of the extreme heat and radiation or with the thick or thin atmospheres on the planets mentioned. The Marian Planet has temperature extremes and lack of an atmosphere and water and anything further away would be too cold unless there was a constant geothermic support on the planet for heating up a live able area. There are beautiful Midrashim on this subject about the moon complaining of two rulers but that is not for the commentary this year. Again, I wish to repeat that without a 24 hour rotation on the earth’s axis and without the yearly rotation of the earth around the sun there is no real ability to measure days and years as we know it. All this could have taken place in 12,000,000 years until this point. There would have been no first day from our standardization of daily measure until the solar day was established.
Now the Kabbala attacks this problem from a different angle. The earth was unformed and void and after creation had the following ancient elements. Air, Water and Earth and the sky had Water above the Rakiya (atmosphere) also Air molecules and Fire from the stars but not earth. On the fourth day the existing planet earth was not a lite up space object hurling for time through space plants basically living from the primeval radiation. Finally on the fourth day finally the 4 elements or forms of matter as I prefer to call them come together. With the Sun comes Fire and heaven and earth are combined with Air, Fire, Earth and Water!
The Creation story will be continued. I know somebody once tried to condense the Kabbala into a few words and he found that he was basically writing Rashi word for word in his commentary.
Barbara M. sent me this post of a story I believe that I posted some years back: I think that you will Leica the Story.
The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient.
Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany’s most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.
And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe , acted in such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."
As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.
To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.
Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France , Britain , Hong Kong and the United States
Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany .
Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.
Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom a new Leica. The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press. Keeping the story quiet.
The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.
By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America , thanks to the Leutz’s' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?
Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market for optical goods was the United States .
Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews
and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.
Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into
Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.
(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic from
France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)
Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no
publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family had died did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light.
It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a
California-born Rabbi currently living in England .
Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. Memories of the righteous should live on.
False Kabbalah Missionary Site warning: http://kabbalahnation.blogspot.com/
This film is in Hebrew with English subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmXVsxpUnhc&feature=player_embedded
I believe that I wrote about this story already: http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/neo-nazi-couple-find-out-theyre-jewish/19648414?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook
This is in Hebrew only: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFQ6EGdbsH0
Inyanay Diyoma
A Muslim or former Muslim wrote me this: For some reason, the American media did not report this, Abdullah of Jordan delivered a speech yesterday before the UN in which he was hostile and loud, knocking the table with his fist, he said the settlements must end or there will be war! Abdullah is afraid he will be de-throned, as talks have included the Palestinians getting their own rights in their homeland, Jordan, and Abdullah is terrified with this, he is simply threatening with war.....does Jordan have enough power to go into war with Israel....amazingly enough....Jordanian military is the fourth strongest army in the Middle East! Abdullah must be removed in a bloodless coup just like Paul Wolfowitz one wrote...and the oppressed Palestinian majority must control their country....do not give up the settlements, and never return the so-called refugees, they belong in their homeland, Palestine, AKA Jordan. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3959234,00.html and his own ED-OP http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=18247 and http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=183252
The biggest punishment for pro-Arab peace activists: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139738
We have to watch out for the reverse: http://www.debka.com/article/9045/
Robert Lowry wrote me after I posted on FB the following article: It's more than that, Rabbi... each one of us does owe $43k of FUNDED Debt - that is the money that we have already spent. BUT, we all owe another $195k of UNFUNDED Debt - the money we have promised to pay but don't have such as all the entitlement programs even the Republicans as of last week neglected to address. We need to meaningful talk about SS and Obamacare, and Medicaid, and Medicare.... they are bankrupt, and we will fall with them.
In essence, every family of four owes almost $240K. Think about that as we write checks to Gaza for redevelopment.
Ouch.
We need Liberty and Freedom NOW! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPOLBgQ3uYk
Putin: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3958687,00.html
Science: http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/ScienceAndEnvironment/Article.aspx?id=188867
Who says that only Pakistani Hackers and virus makers can attack the west: http://www.debka.com/article/9045/
Ehud Barak removed the road blocks in Yehuda and the Shomron and another shooting attack occurred as: http://www.debka.com/article/9046/
A must read from Bob a non-Jew: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/jad_monster_ball_Z7Km37ydJJJHSxgrxPtfbJ?sms_ss=facebook
Retired US Marine Maj. Paul Y. sent me this: http://bigpeace.com/pspoole/2010/09/27/fbi-escorts-known-hamas-operative-through-top-secret-national-counterterrorism-center-as-outreach-to-muslim-community/
Now for M. Wolfberg’s Good Shabbos / Yom Tov Stories:
L'Shana Tova Everyone. Teshuvah - repentance is a wonderful gift from Hashem. It is like declaring bankruptcy, just about all debts are wiped out. Except that Hashem, barring certain exceptions, will accept Teshuvah from a Jew anytime and many times, without limitation. As Rosh Hashana approaches it is time to do Teshuvah! The Rambam tells us that although Teshuvah is accepted by Hashem all year around, these days of the calendar are special times when Hashem is even more willing to accept the penitence. What is Teshuvah? Confessing before Hashem one's wrongdoings, promising not to "do it again," and having regret about past misdeeds.
The following amazing true story illustrates the incredible power of Teshuvah to reunite Hashem and His people Yisroel:
A secular Israeli man and his family were once sent on business to live and work in New York for one year. One Sunday afternoon soon after their arrival in America, the family took a day trip in the mountains. The weather changed very suddenly and the family found themselves in a torrential rain-storm. Unfamiliar with the foreign roads, the father lost control of the family station wagon causing it to sail over a cliff, crashing below.
The parents, who were not wearing their seatbelts, were thrown out of the car and knocked unconscious. After a few minutes, the mother regained consciousness and heard her three small children calling to her from the car. Her husband lay motionless nearby on the ground. The first priority of the mother was to rescue the children in the car which lay precariously perched on another cliff.
The mother, who was in great pain, managed to remove carefully two of the children. However, her third child was trapped in an infant seat, beyond her reach. The mother tried the back door but it was smashed and would not open. The mother tried unsuccessfully to reach over the seat to the third child. Still, the mother just could not reach that far over the seats. The baby sat several feet out of reach. Desperate to save her child, the mother tried reaching out to her baby one more time. Miraculously, the mother was able to take the child into her arms. She knew that she could not possibly have reached that far, but the little girl was safely in her arms!
The mother went through numerous plastic surgeries during her three month stay in the hospital and the children all made full recoveries. The father unfortunately returned his soul to its maker at the scene of the accident. During her stay in the hospital, the mother kept thinking back to how her third child was saved. It was simply physically impossible to have done what she did to reach so far. It had to be a miracle which allowed her to reach her child; there was no way on earth that she could have done it alone. The mother came to believe in Hashem and decided to change her life and return to traditional Jewish observance.
Once home in Eretz Yisroel, the mother enrolled her two older children in religious schools. Because they had previously attended secular schools, the young children were behind their classmates in their religious studies. The ten-year-old Ami was especially frustrated in his Gemara class. He wanted to succeed, but it was very difficult for Ami to catch up. Several months into the school year, the ten-year-old Ami came home from school in tears.
The class was soon to take a comprehensive exam on the fifth chapter of Bava Kama. The boy had little hope of passing the exam. The mother reassured her young son that his teacher would understand, owing to the fact that Ami was just beginning his Gemara studies. The boy felt a little better, but he went to sleep still worried about the exam. In the morning, the boy woke up overjoyed. The mother was relieved to see that her son was happy, and she asked him if he had a restful night’s sleep.
“Oh, I had a wonderful dream,” said the boy “And I know I will do well on the test.” The boy proceeded to tell his mother about the dream: I dreamt of Abba. We were walking down the street and I said to him: Abba, do you know that we are now baaley-teshuva?” And Abba said to me: ‘Yes, I know. The day all of you become religious, I was permitted to enter Gan Eden.’”
The boy continued to relate the dream to his mother: “Then I told Abba that I was now learning Gemara and I was going to have a big test. Abba said, ‘The section of Gemara you are learning in yeshiva is same section of Gemara they are teaching me in Gan Eden.’ Abba then proceeded to teach me everything I need to know about the fifth chapter of Bava Kama.” Ami received a score of 100% on the exam.(Rabbi P.J.Krohn, The Maggid Speaks p.203-205) Hashem is waiting for us today. Let us return to Him and be friends again. L'Shana Tova Everyone.
Good Yom Tov Everyone. The day of Yom Kippur is a gift from Hashem. It is a day on which, assuming we have done Teshuva - repentance, Hashem forgives us for our spiritual misdeeds. We attain forgiveness for the violations we have committed in our relationship with Hashem. However, if one has wronged another, he must go to the wronged party and ask him for forgiveness. For, although Yom Kippur is a tremendous day of forgiveness, Hashem cannot forgive the sins against one's fellow; rather, the offender must approach the offended party and ask him or her for forgiveness.
The following amazing true story illustrates this concept.
The whole of Yerushalayim was excited! A well-known and well-liked couple, members of a certain Chasidic sect, had just his first child - a boy - after being childless for twenty-eight years! The sholom zachor (party in honor of baby boy held the Friday night before the bris) that Friday night was the event of the year. Well over a thousand people came by to wish Mazel Tov to the proud and exhausted father. The food supply ran out in short order as did the drinks, but no one seemed to mind. At the height of the celebration, the crowd quieted down as the father indicated that he would like to say a few words.
He began in a loud voice, "Thank you all for coming and sharing in the simcha (joyous celebration). Although I have no more food to offer, let me at least tell over a story which I'm sure you'll appreciate."
The ecstatic new father composed himself and continued. "When I was a bochur (unmarried student) learning at a large Chassidishe Yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel , there was a cleaning lady who would come by every day to tidy up and scrub the Beis Medrash and adjoining rooms. She was a fixture in the yeshiva and devoted her life to maintaining the yeshiva building. She was, however, not a wealthy person by any stretch and as her own family grew, she was at a loss of options as far as taking care of her children. She decided to bring her kids with her to work, and as she cleaned and mopped in one area of the building, the young children would run amuck, screaming, crying and generally causing quite a commotion, in the rest of the yeshiva.
At first, we put up with it; we even thought it was cute for a time. But after a while, the kids really began to 'shter' (disrupt) us in our learning and davening. Try as we might to control them, they wouldn't listen and continued on in their childish games and noise. A number of younger bochurim (students) asked me, as one of the oldest in the chaburah (group), to ask her not to bring her children anymore to the yeshiva.
"I agreed to talk to her and I brazenly walked up to her and told her that her kids were disturbing everyone in yeshiva and she should find some sort of alternative method of child-care for them. I'll never forget how she looked at me with tired eyes and said, 'Bochur (young man), you should never have tzaar gidul bonim (the pain and anguish that one goes through when raising children, meaning that he would not be blessed with children). The crowd listening at the simcha gasped.
"As many of you know," continued the father, "my wife and I have been to countless doctors who've recommended every sort of treatment. We moved abroad for awhile to be near an 'expert' which proved to be fruitless. One last, extreme treatment was offered and after trying that, it too, turned out to be just a fantasy; we felt doomed to a life without the pleasure of raising a yiddishe family.
"After that last attempt, as we walked back into the apartment that we lived in for the past twenty-eight years, our entire sad situation hit us full force, like a ton of bricks. Together, we broke down crying. I suddenly remembered the incident with the cleaning lady. I realized how insensitive I was to her plight and pain. I decided to ask for forgiveness. But how? I spent hours on the phone until I came up with an address, which I ran over to immediately. She did not recognize me obviously, but when I told her over the story, a spark flickered in her eyes. I tearfully apologized for my harsh words and she graciously forgave me with her whole heart."
Beaming from ear to ear, the father announced, " Rabbosai (distinguished guests), that took place nine months ago!"
There is still time to reach out to those we may have offended in the past year and to mend fences with them. Whenever we see a fence, we should think to ourselves: "Do I have to mend fences with anyone I may have offended?" In doing so, we will ensure for ourselves and our families a good final judgment on Yom Kippur. Good Yom Tov Everyone.
Good Yom Tov Everyone. Wednesday night begins one of the most joyous times in the Jewish Calendar with the Yom Tov of Sukkos. Sukkos is referred to as the "time of our rejoicing." One of the reasons that we have to rejoice is that we live in countries where we can celebrate our Jewish heritage openly. As we know, unfortunately, during the generations, Jews have not always been able to celebrate Sukkos in freedom.
In the last twenty of so years, Judaism has come to life across Russia--and when it comes to the festival of Sukkos it is really a open miracle, since this holiday was almost completely forgotten because of the dangers and risks of attempting to put up a sukkah or obtain a lulav and esrog. The following touching true story illustrates one Jew's self sacrifice and pure intent in wanting to fulfill the mitzvah of dwelling in the Sukkah.
"I want to share with you a story I heard a few weeks ago, while I visited Kazan, Russia, a city in the largely Muslim Tatarstan region. After a beautiful morning prayer service in synagogue led by the Chief Rabbi of Kazan, Yitzchok Garelik, I was introduced to Moshe Adinov, a 65-year-old local dentist and a regular participant in the daily minyan (prayer quorum). I asked him how it came to be that he comes to synagogue every day. He told me the following remarkable Sukkos story that I must pass on to you here, as I remember him telling it to me:
'My father was R' Nachum Eliyahu Adinov. He was a sofer (Torah scribe) in Kazan before World War II. He kept the traditions in our home, but of course there was no Jewish school. I went to public school even on Shabbos. A lot of tradition was weakened. Nevertheless, I remember growing up with as many Jewish traditions and holidays as were possible. My father was afraid for my future. He always warned me not to repeat to others what we did at home. 'Be a Jew at home and a Russian in the street,' he said.
I would have never been accepted at university had I been a practicing Jew. We lived in a small wooden home--not in an apartment building like most people. We had a besedka, basically a porch, in the back of our home. Every year we'd celebrate Sukkos. My father would cover the roof with leaves and foliage. We'd invite over many Jewish friends. The secret was that the only sukkah in town was in our house. My father would make kiddush on wine, tell stories and gently speak to us, and this memory of Sukkos always stayed with me.
My father died in 1965, and I inherited the house. I wanted to keep that Sukkos tradition alive, to continue the tradition for my children. I thought that, due to his limited means, all my father was able to do was put up trees and foliage. I wanted to do better than him! I had friends in the steel industry, and every year since 1965, I put up a sturdy aluminum roof on the besedka. I was proud that I continued my father's tradition.
In 1998, Chabad-Lubavitch sent Rabbi Yitzchok Garelik and his wife Chana here. It was so beautiful to have a young Jewish family celebrating in public what I always did secretly. It was incredible for me. That year, Rabbi Garelik said to me, 'Reb Moshe, tomorrow night is Sukkos--I want you to come to the beautiful sukkah we built.'
When I walked into the sukkah, I saw Rabbi Garelik in his holiday finest, holding an overflowing glass of wine, candles shining in his face--and foliage, branches and trees above his head! I couldn't contain my emotions. I began to cry. I suddenly realized that what my father did was the way it's supposed to be, and for the last 30 years, by placing an aluminum roof, I wasn't doing it the right way. I had only meant to make the sukkah more beautiful!
Rabbi Garelik asked me to tell my story, and then he said to me: 'Your father is looking down from Heaven with all the great Jews of the past and smiling--and I promise you, Hashem had the utmost pleasure from the beauty of your sukkah with the aluminum roof more than any sukkah in the world with the appropriate foliage, because you did it with such love and sincerity.'
Since then, I have continued to learn and understand our traditions. Since then, I and my family are involved as part of the community and today celebrate all the holidays with their rich fullness.
In Russia today, sukkahs are mostly built at the synagogues, since it is very difficult to build near apartment buildings. So Sukkos in Russia becomes an incredible community event. Despite the cold, everyone comes out--with so many people all singing, spending family time, laughing and talking, and enjoying words of Torah, the holiness of the sukkah keeps us all warm. This is the true story of Sukkos in Russia--how, like the spark of Jewishness itself, Communism never was able to truly stamp Sukkos out! Good Yom Tov Everyone.
Mr. Wolfberg’s Shabbos sponsored by: Refuah Shleima to Mordechai Menachem Mendel ben Tziporah Yitta Refuah Shleima to Tsviah bas Bracha Leah
In memory of Shosha Malka bas R' Avrohom 21 Cheshvan Refuah Shleimah to Chana Ashayra bas Dodi
Have and wonderful restful and joyous Simchas Torah and dance what you can and get caught up in the Simcha.
Rachamim Pauli
