The next is a letter I won from Rabbi Netanel Kaszovitz, rabbi of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation in New Zealand:
“Shalom, Sivan. You recently published a story about a small Jewish village that consisted of ten families. Every morning, there was a minyan in the village because a man from each family felt responsible to ensure that there would be a minyan that day. But then another family moved to the village – family #11 – and the next morning, there was no minyan. Everyone felt less responsibility towards the community.
“This past Pesach, we experienced in our community the very opposite situation. Even though we have a small community, there is a minyan, thank God, every Shabbat. But on the last day of Pesach, there was a huge rainstorm. I was worried that there wouldn’t be a minyan that day.
“Arnold is a 101-year-old member of our community. In just a few weeks, we will be celebrating his 102nd birthday. On the last day of Pesach, he woke up, noticed the weather outside, and said to his wife: “I’m worried that there won’t be a minyan today because of the weather.” So, he walked within the rain to sign up for our minyan.
“When he arrived at shul, he told me why he had come that morning, and I was amazed and moved. Over the course of the prayer service, more and more people kept coming. Apparently, many had been worried about the weather, so they had decided to come – specifically that day – to ensure that there would be a minyan.
“My wish is that each one of us should always feel as if he or she is the ‘tenth person for the minyan’ – important, precious, and special!’
The destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in southern Israel, October 11, 2023 (credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)Have you heard about these ceremonies?
These days, in Kibbutz Be’eri, the homes damaged on October 7 are being torn down. But these demolitions are not only acts of clearing away ruins. They have become ceremonies of memory, grief, faith, and rebuilding.
Take Eli Sharabi. He came to see the place where his wife, Lianne, and his daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered.
“It was important for me to be here,” he stated because the demolition started. “We are the Jewish people. We have a very special DNA – the DNA of rebuilding. I think that precisely in order to honor those who fell, I must move forward and build a life of action and meaning.”
Round the corner, the house of Rachel Fricker used to be additionally demolished.
“A million emotions are mixed together,” she stated as she watched the partitions come down. “For twelve and a half hours, the terrorists were inside this house with me.”
Rachel arrived with rabbis and buddies. “I recited Birkat Hagomel, the blessing said after surviving danger. I said Mizmor Letodah, a psalm of thanksgiving, and we raised a glass – to the home that was, and to the home that will yet be built.”
She shared every other placing tale. Now not way back, a rabbi requested to take ashes from her space for his son’s marriage ceremony, in line with the customized of hanging ashes at the groom’s head as a remembrance of destruction. When he entered the home, he noticed a fox. For the ones aware of the tale, it right away known as to thoughts Rabbi Akiva, who noticed a fox rising from the ruins of the Temple and understood it as an indication that where would someday be rebuilt.
“It was a sign for me, too,” Rachel stated.
After the rite, she returned to her caravilla in Hatzerim “with a feeling of peace, of closure.” Rachel, who additionally manages the Be’eri synagogue, added {that a} new, massive synagogue is quickly to be constructed within the middle of the kibbutz.
Then there may be Avida Bachar, who controlled Be’eri’s agriculture. On that morning, he misplaced his spouse, Dana, his son, Carmel, and his leg.
“This was a home of life,” he stated, status reverse the tractor that had come to demolish his space. “You meet a woman, build a family, build a life – and in one second, everything is destroyed. But when you look at things from above, you say to yourself: We must build life and family again.”
Since October 7, Avida has carried with him all over the place what he calls his “crying towel.” He used it incessantly on the rite, particularly when his buddies stood beside him and sang Shir LaMa’alot, A Music of Ascents, moments prior to the demolition started.
He additionally sought after to put across two messages: a company safety message to the out of doors – “I woke up. Gaza must cease to exist” – and a message of harmony inside: “For the first time, I got to know my people, and I am awed by their strength.”
Eli, Rachel, Avida – thanks for those phrases. They, too, are a part of the rebuilding.
Parashat Korach: The basis of the dispute
Out of doors of Israel, the portion of Korach is learn this week. Korach become synonymous with dispute. He rebels in opposition to the management of Moshe and Aharon and seeks to exchange them. What came about to him? And what on occasion occurs to us as neatly?
Our sages provide an explanation for: There’s a “dispute for the sake of Heaven,” one this is necessary to navigate. However there could also be a “dispute that is not for the sake of Heaven,” corresponding to the only initiated by means of Korach, which is rooted in ego, a greedy for honor, and different ulterior motives.
In essence, Korach’s dispute used to be in response to a quarrel he had with himself. He felt discouraged and indifferent, and in consequence failed to find his personal distinctive position and undertaking in lifestyles. The commentators provide an explanation for that his spouse used to be likewise annoyed along with her scenario, and she or he saved filling Korach’s thoughts with toxic ideas: You deserve extra; you will have to be like Moshe and Aharon; you aren’t liked sufficient.
I urge you to inspect your interpersonal relationships, at house and at paintings, to decide whether or not you aren’t stirring up controversy on your environment as a result of, on the root of all of it, you might be disenchanted with your self.
We write the headlines
What is that this morning’s major headline? That is dependent upon us.
Within the parashah this is learn this week in Israel, Chukat, we’re informed of the passing of Miriam the Prophetess. In his e-book, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl recollects one second from Miriam’s lifestyles: all of the country waited for her for a complete week, till she recovered from tzara’at. And this is his clarification:
“Many years earlier, when Moshe Rabbeinu was in the basket on the Nile, his sister Miriam waited for him for a short time and watched over him. In that merit, she later merited that the entire nation would wait for her for a whole week. Every minute of kindness counts, and so does every second of a good deed.
“We must understand this enormous power. We must understand who we are. Every small action of ours can change the world. We do not see it, but up Above, it is reported with excitement, every small gesture of warmth, every smile, every expression of interest in a new neighbor – it all counts. It all matters.
“If we acquire for ourselves the clear, absolute, and unequivocal knowledge that every good deed we do becomes a main headline in Heaven, it will help us to truly take control of the way we live.”
Translated by means of Yehoshua Siskin and Janine Muller Sherr
